Archimedes, the “Father of experimental science”, was an ancient Greek physicist and mathematician. He was born at Syracuse in Sicily in the year 287 B.C. and educated in Alexandria. His teacher was a disciple of Euclid. The principles of science discovered by him are still taught to students. The famous “Archimedes’ Principle” tells us that if we weigh an object in air and then weigh it again when submerged in a liquid, it will apparently lose weight equal to the weight of the liquid it displaces.
The story of discovery of the famous Archimedes’ Principle is very interesting. Once King Heron of Syracuse gave him a crown made of gold. He suspected that it was alloyed with silver. He asked Archimedes to test its purity without damaging it. It was absolutely a new problem for him. Interestingly he found its solution one day in a very peculiar manner. When he entered his bathtub, he found that his body displaced some water, and the water level in the tub rose. He then jumped out and ran down the street, naked, shouting “Eureka! Eureka!” (“I have found it! I have found it!”). He filled a vessel with water and dipped the crown in it. The water displaced by it was measured. Again he filled the vessel with water and dipped an equal mass of pure gold in it. The water displaced was again collected and measured. The amount of water displaced in the two observations was different. From this experiment he estimated the impurity in the gold crown. On the basis of this discovery he gave the method of finding out the relative density of different substances.
Archimedes also gave the laws of flotation of bodies and the principle of lever. He, for the first time, calculated the value of pi. In addition to these, he discovered the use of levers and pulleys and how to pump water uphill using Archimedean screw. The system is still used to irrigate fields in Egypt. He also designed war machines.
Romans captured Syracuse in 212 B.C. At that time Archimedes had become quite old. One day while he was drawing some geometrical figure on the sand, one of the Roman soldiers asked him to accompany him. And when he refused, the soldier pulled out his sword and killed him. He was cremated with great honours.