Archimedes’ Eureka
Archimedes was a Greek scientist. He lived in Syracus about
200 years ago. His story ‘Eureka’ was very famous.
About 200 hundred years ago King Hiero ruled the kingdom of
Syracuse. He asked a goldsmith to craft a golden crown. He weighed and gave the
precise amount of gold to the godsmith.
The goldsmith did an excellent job . He created a beautiful
crown of golden leaves and returned it to the king one time. The King was very
happy . He weighed the crown and saw that the weight was the same as the gold
he had provided. Later on however, thr king suspected that the goldsmith had
hot used all the gold that he gave him, but had mixed a little silver with it.
So, the king called upon his friend Archimedes to solve the
problem. Archimedes was a genius . He began tp think of a solution . He knew
that gold and silver have different densities.
While he was still pondering on the matter, Archimedes
wanted to have a bath. When he stepped into the tub of water, he saw that some
water spilled out of the tub. Then , the more he sank his body in the tub , the
more water ran out. He realized that the amount of water spilled must be
exactly the same volume as himself.
All of a sudden Archimedes had a bright idea . He had a
solution to the king’s problem. He was so excited and shouted,”Eureka! Eureka!”
(Eureka is a Greek word meaning “I found it”).
Archimedes then made two masses, same weight as the crown.
One was of gold and the other of silver. Then, he filled one large vessel with
waterup to the brim. First he dropped the mass of silver in the water. Water,
equal in volume to mass spilled out.
He needed to know the quantity of water spilled. So he took
out the mass of silver, then took the print measure and filled the container to
the brim, as before. The amount needed to fill the container was equal too the
amount spilled.
Then, he dropped the mass of gold in the water to know yhe
quantity of water spilled. He noticed that the amount of water spilled with
gold, was less than the amount of water spilled with silver. Then, he filled
the vessel again, dropped the crown in it and measured the quantity of water
spilled. Archimedes noticed that more water was lost with the crown that with
mass of gold of the same weight. Thus it was concluded that the crown was not
made of pure gold, but some silver had been mixed with it.
What a brilliant idea!
