MEASUREMENT

MRS RUMHIZHA FORM 1

 Archimedes lived in Syracuse, Greece
Story Behind the over 2,000 years ago. He was a
Invention physicist, a mathematician, an
engineer, and an astronomer. The tales
of his wisdom and genius were well-
known throughout the land.
The king of Syracuse had a golden crown made by one of the
finest jewelers in his kingdom. The king himself had supplied
pure gold required for it. The jeweler had done a fine job in
making the crown, but the king suspected that he had adulterated
the pure gold with silver. However, since there were no means of
testing the purity of a metal at the time, the jeweler’s claim
couldn’t be verified. The king summoned Archimedes and
assigned him the task of verifying the authenticity of the golden
crown, but without destroying it.
It was a real challenge! Archimedes worked for many days, tried
every known method and applied all his mathematical
knowledge; however, he just simply couldn’t produce a solution.
One day, while still struggling with the problem, Archimedes
decided to take a soothing bath to clear his head. He had a
bathtub filled with water and made ready for him.
As Archimedes stepped into the full bathtub, he
noticed that some water in it, splashed out.
When he submersed more of his body, even
more water over-flowed. Right away, he knew
that he had found the answer to the king’s
problem.
So excited was he, that he hopped off the
bathtub and ran through the streets stark naked
shouting ‘Eureka, Eureka!!!’ He submitted his
results to the king using which, the king was
able to prove that indeed the jeweler had
cheated him by adding silver to the crown.
Today Archimedes' method is known as the water
displacement method and is widely used for its simplicity
and accuracy.
How Does the Method Work
So how was Archimedes able to verify the make of the
crown by observing the overflow of water from his
bathtub?
When Archimedes stepped into the bathtub and saw that
the water in it overflowed, he immediately realized that
there was some connection between the occurrence of the
two events. When he immersed himself further and saw
that more water overflowed, he knew at once that the
relation between his mass and that of the overflowing
water was a direct one.