Mathematics · Question
Which greek mathematician ran through the streets of Syracuse naked while shouting "Eureka" after discovering the principle of displacement?
Answer
Archimedes
The story behind the answer
Archimedes is correct; according to legend, he realized in his bath that a submerged body displaces its own volume of water and experiences an upward buoyant force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. This insight—now called Archimedes’ principle—let him test whether King Hiero II’s crown was pure gold by comparing how much water it displaced relative to an equal-weight bar of gold. Overjoyed, he reportedly ran through Syracuse shouting “Eureka!” (“I have found it!”).
Memory tip: picture Archimedes in a bathtub, water overflowing as he yells “Eureka”—bath equals buoyancy and displacement. For context, Euclid wrote the Elements (geometry), Eratosthenes measured Earth’s circumference, and Homer was a poet, not a mathematician.