ARCHIMEDES

ARCHIMEDES (287 - 212 B.C.)
Archimedes who was born in Syracuse was a great scientist, mathematician and inventor. He is most well known for the utterance ‘Eureka! Eureka’ which meant I have found it! I have found it!” He shouted so because he had discovered the king Hieron’s crown a fake. He found that the specific gravity of the material of the golden crown didn’t tally with that of pure gold. Actually he was lying in a bath tub. He observed that a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. This is better known as Archimedes principle. The ratio of the weight of a substance to the weight of water it displaced when immersed in it is hence a constant and is called the specific gravity of the material. Archimedes detected the impurity in the golden crown without breaking. He just filled a vessel with water and dipped the crown in it. He measured the water displaced on account of it. Again he filled the vessel with water and dipped equal mass of pure gold in it. He measured the water displaced this time. The amount of water displaced in the two cases was different. By this he could estimate the impurity in the golden crown made by the Goldsmith which was doubted by the king who had asked Archimedes to test the same without damaging it.

Once Archimedes said to the king: ”Give me a rod of proper length and suitable place to hook one end of it, I shall lift the earth” with the help of levers and pulleys he lifted a loaded ship on to the bank.

Archimedes was a mathematician too. He wrote books like measurement of the circle; on the Sphere and cylinder; method and book of Lemmas. He calculated the value of Pi. He invented few simple machines and war machines.

After the war in 212 B.C. Syracuse came under the Romans. Archimedes was unhappy. One day he was making some geometrical figure, on the ground. An armed soldier threatened him while Archimedes said: “please do not disturb. Let me finish my circle.” But the soldier killed him.
The law of floating explained by Archimedes is Archimedes’ principle. It reasons that a body immersed in water or any liquid will displace a volume of fluid equal in weight to the weight of the immersed body.