Archimedes was a great mathematician and scientist born in 287 BC. He is mostly remembered for discovering a fact that become known as ‘Archimedes’ Principle’. All bodies weighed when immersed in fluid, show a loss of weight equal to the fluid they displace.
Archimedes made this startling discovery while he was in his bath. He was so excited that he rushed out in the street naked shouting “Eureka!” This is Greek for “I have found it!”
According to Boundless, the Archimedes principle states that the buoyant force on an object submerged in a fluid is equal to the weight of the fluid that is displaced by that object.
If a glass is filled to the top with water and then ice cubes are added to it, what happens? Just like the water spilled over the edge when Archimedes entered his bathtub, the water in the glass will spill over when ice cubes are added to it. If the water that spilled out were weighed (weight is a downward force), it would equal the upward (buoyant) force on the object. From the buoyant force, the volume or average density of the object can be determined.
Archimedes was able to determine that the crown was not pure gold due to the volume of the displaced water, because even though the weight of the crown was identical to the weight of the gold that the king gave the crown maker, the volume was different due the various densities of the metals.
Credit : Live Science
Picture Credit : Google
