© Jordi Pérez Ies Martin i Soler Mislata

15

EUROPA CEPT 1983

᾿Αρχιμήδης of Siracusa (287-212 BC)
Archimedes is one of the most famous scientists of the Hellenistic period.
Although he was born and lived most of his life in the Greek city of Syracuse,
in Sicily, in Magna Graecia, he studied and was trained in Alexandria.
Like most of the main scientists and philosophers of Antiquity, the figure of
Archimedes is surrounded by more or less credible anecdotes that Greek and
Roman historians have passed on to us.
Perhaps the critical spirit of the Greeks should be applied to the anecdotes we
collect below:
1. The golden crown
The king of Syracuse Hiero II had given a goldsmith a piece of pure gold to
make a crown that would cover the head of a statue of a goddess. The crown
already shone on the statue, but the king suspected that the goldsmith had
cheated him. For this reason, he asks Archimedes to find out if the crown was
made from pure gold or if the goldsmith had mixed gold and silver to keep for
him some of the gold.
Archimedes pondered the way he would analyze the question, but it was not
until one day he slowly got into the bathtub and saw the water pour out as his
body entered. Then, completely naked, he left bathtub and his house,
shouting Εὕρηκα, Εὕρηκα ("I got it"). He had just discovered the principle of
Archimedes, according to which when a body is submerged in a liquid it
experiences an upward force equal to the weight of the volume of the
displaced liquid.
In this way, Archimedes took a piece of pure gold that had the same weight as
the crown and submerged it in a basin full of water. As a result, a little bit of
water was poured. Then he took the king's crown and dipped it in the same

I basin: a little more water was poured.

Had the goldsmith tricked him? Why?

Εὕρηκα, Εὕρηκα.
I got it!