Eureka! He found it! What did he find, who found it, how did he find it? All these questions can be answered looking at one man—Archimedes. Archimedes, unquestionably one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, discovered the principle of buoyancy. He was born in Syracuse on the island of Sicily in 287 BC. He became known for his mechanical inventions used in times of war, yet, he was more famous for his passionate love of geometry. Often, he would forget to eat or drink, as he was so fixated on mathematical problems. He would be carried to the bathtub kicking and screaming because it kept him from his theorems; and so he would draw mathematical figures in the water to keep his obsession alight. It was out of his bathtub that he so famously leaped and ran naked through the streets of his native city shouting "Eureka, Eureka", which means "I have found it, I have found it". What he found was that his body, when submerged in water, caused water to rise and and that he was, at the same time, buoyed up by the water. Mathematically, he found that the upward, buoyant force on an object in water is equal to the weight of the water that is displaced by the object. This is called Archimedes Principle of Buoyancy.

Archimedes’ discovery was important in uncovering whether a gold crown commissioned by King Hieronymus, the ruler of Syracuse at the time, had been adulterated with a quantity of silver. The crown was intended to celebrate the gods, yet Hieronymus was immediately suspicious that it was not entirely made of gold and so he asked Archimedes to confirm its contents. Archimedes struggled to find an answer for the King; it was merely accidental that he came across the answer while in the bath.

Though it is difficult to know all that much about Archimedes because he lived so long ago; most of what we do know comes from Vitruvious, a Roman architect, who said that to discover the contents of the crown, Archimedes immersed a lump of silver and a lump of gold into a container of water and saw that a certain volume of water overflowed from each lump. After immersing the crown in water, he noted that more water overflowed than the gold and less than the silver confirming it was of mixed breed. The craftsmen admitted his dishonesty in shame.

There are some that contend Archimedes came from humble beginnings, others that argue he was related to King Hieronymus and was therefore of royal blood. Whatever his origin, one thing is for certain: he was a genius. Archimedes was known for a variety of mathematical inventions and theorems. During the Second Punic War in 212 BC, he invented a number of machines that were used to defend Syracuse from the Roman invasion led by Marcellus, though he had little interest in military matters. In fact, when Hieronymus capitulated to Roman forces, Archimedes did not even notice! According to Vitruvious, his focus on mathematics and unawareness of the historic events that were taking place in his own city caused his death. Archimedes was busy working on mathematical equations when a Roman soldier unexpectedly appeared in his home; he ordered Archimedes to follow him to Marcellus. However Archimedes, wishing to finish his geometric problem first, told him to wait. This enraged the soldier, and while not knowing that Marcellus cherished the brilliant mind of Archimedes, he ran his sword through the mathematician ending his life then and there. The man may have died, but his discoveries live on!

Illustrations courtesy Chris Rorres