ABSTRACT
“Eureka! Eureka!” With this Greek word meaning “I have found it!”, the great inventor and scientist Archimedes (likely 287–212 BC) ran, allegedly naked, through the streets of his hometown, Syracuse (Sicily, Italy), performing dances of joy after he had discovered, during a bath, that the increase of the water level in the pool must correspond exactly to the volume of those parts of his body he had submerged. This discovery allows one to measure the volume of any solid object, no matter how irregular it might be – a problem that was unresolved at that time. Today we find the solution and read about the correspondence between volume of objects and volume of displaced liquids in schoolbooks of physics, and many have heard of Archimedes’ infamous discoveries, including the impressive war machines he is reputed to have invented.
