英文幽默故事：Eureka Eureka

Archimedes was a Greek scientist. He lives in Syracuse nearly 200 years ago. The King of the land wanted to wear a Golden Crown. He gave some gold to a goldsmith to make a suitable crown. After few days, the goldsmith brought the finished crown to the King. The crown was weighed. The weight of the crown was equal to the gold given to the goldsmith by the King. The King looked at the color of the crown. He had a suspicion. The goldsmith could have stolen some gold from the gold given to him. The King wanted to find out the truth. He asked his court scientist Archimedes to find out. The King said, “Find out how much gold had been stolen?" 

 

How to find out the truth? Archimedes thought about the problem day and night. One day he was about to have his bath, but he was busy thinking. He did not notice the bathtub. The water in the bathtub was already full to the brim. He slid into the bathtub. Immediately a large quantity of water flowed over the brim of the bath tub. He noticed this suddenly. His brain wave worked suddenly. He jumped out of the bathtub, shouting, “Eureka! Eureka!" Eureka in Greek means “I have found it." 

 

Different metals of the same weight have different volumes. Objects, put in water, will displace water. The displaced water will be equal to their volume. 

 

For example, an iron cube weighing a kilogram will disperse¹ some water. But an aluminums cube of the same weight will displace more water than the iron cube. 

 

Archimedes knew all these theories. Using this as the basic knowledge, Archimedes worked out a plan to find out the purity of the crown. 

 

Archimedes took two bowls. He filled them with water to the brim. Then he placed each bowl separately in the middle of the large vessels³. He placed the crown in one bowl. Water overflowed⁵. It collected at the bottom of the outer vessel². Then he took a cube of pure gold. This cube of gold was equal in weight to the crown. He kept this gold cube in the middle of the second bowl. Here also water overflowed. Water got collected at the bottom of the outer bowl. 

 

Archimedes then measured the quantity of water in the two vessels. He found out the difference in the water overflow⁴. The crown had sent out more water. The cube of gold had sent out less water. But both the crown and the gold cube were of the same weight. So, they should have sent out the same quantity of water. Therefore, the crown had some other metals mixed in it. These metals took up more space in the water than pure gold. 

 

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