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WHAT WAS SO COOL ABOUT ARCHIMEDES' DISCOVERY |
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by Carlos Ramone
His solution to the problem of "what is the King's crown made of?" [1] presumed that gold and other metals had different densities. The weight of "x" volume of gold was a known fact, established by long experiment. This strong reliance on historic observations is the bedrock of empiricism. Thus, in Archimedes' view of the world, things have definite qualities. Gold has a specific weight, as does copper, lead, etc. Why the ancient fascination with gold if not for the fact that one can ascertain its purity? It is a considerable step in cognizing the universe to understand that there is this thing called gold, distinguishable from all other things, unique in its value, always usable for particular purposes. This notion is directly opposed to systems of subjectivism that might say, "Anything might be happening, but we perceive it as whatever we happen to perceive." Archimedes knew that things were a certain way. That way would be the same, regardless of what you thought. And when you think about it, Archimedes' universe is comforting. Some things, at least, will remain the same. Gravity, for instance, and the inverse square law, and Shakespeare's rhymes, for that matter. ASK ARCHIMEDES: "Specific weight of particular elements produced in stellar furnaces provides unequivocal evidence of objective nature of all observed phenomena putting to flight reductionist intellectual denialist regimes." _______________ [1] The king of Syracuse, Hiero, suspected his new gold crown was not pure gold. He called on the services of the mathematician Archimedes to lay his fears to rest. Archimedes knew that to find what the crown was made of he would need to work out the volume of an irregular solid. Then when he stepped into the bath he noticed water spilling over the top, and suddenly realised that the volume of the spilt water was equal to his bulk. So if he put the crown into water he could find its volume. Then he had to obtain a block of pure gold the same weight as the crown. If the volume was the same then the crown was gold, not an alloy. Archimedes jumped out the bath and ran naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting 'Eureka, eureka!, 'I've found it!'
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