A story about Archimedes and measuring the density of metal
adamlaneus
Posts: 6,969 ✭✭✭
Archimedes was a Greek philosopher.
The story goes that the king of the day wanted a new crown made entirely of gold. After the goldsmith made it, the king was suspicious that the goldsmith made it of iron and coated it with gold.
The king did not want to destroy the crown if in fact it were gold, so he asked Archimedes to figure out if it was pure gold or not without destroying the crown. Archimedes pondered this day in and day out and the problem had him confounded until one night in bed.
His wife, who was also wise, said "Archimedes, you stink. Take a bath."
When getting into his bath he discovered the principle of water displacement that bears his name.
The tub was full to the rim, and when he sat down in it, he noticed that the more he sank himself into the water, the more water that spilled over the side of the tub.
He was supposedly so happy to make this discovery that he ran out into the streets naked shouting "I found it!"
What he discovered is that the amount of water displaced by an object depends on the volume of that object (not the weight). If he knew the mass of that object, and the volume of fluid it displaces, he could determine its density.
The moral of this story is "Remember to take a bath once in a while".
The story goes that the king of the day wanted a new crown made entirely of gold. After the goldsmith made it, the king was suspicious that the goldsmith made it of iron and coated it with gold.
The king did not want to destroy the crown if in fact it were gold, so he asked Archimedes to figure out if it was pure gold or not without destroying the crown. Archimedes pondered this day in and day out and the problem had him confounded until one night in bed.
His wife, who was also wise, said "Archimedes, you stink. Take a bath."
When getting into his bath he discovered the principle of water displacement that bears his name.
The tub was full to the rim, and when he sat down in it, he noticed that the more he sank himself into the water, the more water that spilled over the side of the tub.
He was supposedly so happy to make this discovery that he ran out into the streets naked shouting "I found it!"
What he discovered is that the amount of water displaced by an object depends on the volume of that object (not the weight). If he knew the mass of that object, and the volume of fluid it displaces, he could determine its density.
The moral of this story is "Remember to take a bath once in a while".
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Comments
BTW, a battleship can be floated in one gallon of water.
Marilyn vos savant
Proud recipient of two "You Suck" awards
<< <i>Uh, the amount of water displaced by an object depends upon the object's VOLUME (not mass, as you said). A cubic inch of gold and a cubic inch of cement will both displace a cubic inch of water.
BTW, a battleship can be floated in one gallon of water.
Marilyn vos savant >>
That's true, however an equal weight of gold [say one pound] will not displace the same amount of water as an equal weight of platinum or silver [one pound]. So all he had to do was weigh the object, make another solid gold object that weighed the same, and see how much water they both displaced. If it was not the same then it was not pure gold.
Having frequented many a coin show, more coin collectors should remember this
"“Those who sacrifice liberty for security/safety deserve neither.“(Benjamin Franklin)
"I only golf on days that end in 'Y'" (DE59)
Even if it did weigh the same, it might not be pure gold. I wonder if they knew about tungsten back then . . .
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