Archimedes' Discovery of the Volume of Irregular Bodies

By Nick Blackford

Before Archimedes' Discovery

Before Archimedes' discovery of how to take the volume of irregular bodies, there were many shapes that volume could be calculated for. Such as:

Cylinders Spheres

Cones
Cubes Prisms

Before Archimedes' Discovery

However, in real world applications, objects are rarely a perfect sphere or cylinder.

So, there were an infinite amount of objects that the volume could not be taken of. For example:

The Golden Crown

Therefore, Archimedes' had his work cut out for him when King Hieron II approached him with a mathematical problem

King Hieron had decided to have a gold leaf crown made, that he would give as a gift to the gods.
Hieron bought a certain weight of gold and gave it to a goldsmith explaining to the goldsmith what he wanted. The goldsmith told Hieron that the crown would be ready in 90 days.

The Golden Crown

After the 90 days were up the goldsmith had the crown prepared and presented to the king. The king loved the crown and marveled at its beauty However, the king grew suspicious of the goldsmith and wondered if the crown was really pure gold. Remembering that Archimedes was a great thinker, he brought to him his problem.

Archimedes Thinks

Once Archimedes was given this task he left the king and went to ponder the problem. His thought process followed these steps:

Archimedes weighed out 10 pounds of gold and noticed that it balanced with the crown. Now that he had the same weight of gold, he figured that the shapes should have the same volume. However, it was very difficult to find the volume of the crown since it did not have an irregular shape. Thus, Archimedes took a trip to the bath.

Archimedes Thinks

As Archimedes lowered himself into the bath he noticed that the further that he immersed his body, the higher the water level rose.

At this Archimedes recognized a way to measure the volume of his crown.

Archimedes' Discovery

At the realization that he had found a way to solve the king's problem, Archimedes leapt out of the tub and rushed home naked. As he ran he yelled aloud to everyone, Eureka! Eureka

Presentation to the King

There are 2 versions of the next story:

The Jars and Bowls method

The Lever Technique

The Jars and Bowls Method

In this method, it is proposed that Archimedes filled 3 jars to the brim with water, and placed inside of bowls.

The three jars were for:

10 pounds of gold 10 pounds of silver The golden crown

Archimedes then noted the amount of water that overflowed into the bowls for each item.

The Jars and Bowls Method

The most water that poured out was for the block of silver.

The least water that poured out was the block of gold.
The golden crown had an amount of water that was between the gold and silver, thus proving that it was a mixture of the two metals.

Demo!

The Lever Method

The more likely method, involved a lever (used as a scale) that balanced the crown and the 10 pounds of gold. The two objects then were submerged in a pool of water. The more dense object (the block of gold) sinks further down into the water.

This proves that the crown was not pure gold, but a mixture of metals.

Demo!

Important Results

Hydrostatics Taking volume of irregular solids Density Archimedes' Principle (buoyancy)

Volume by Displacement

The most obvious result is that now objects' volume can be found by measuring the amount of water that is displaced when submerged.

Density

The property that Archimedes used in his experiment is density. Density is how much weight is in a certain volume of a substance. Archimedes observed that two objects of the same weight can displace different amounts of water.

Archimedes' Principle

A basic understanding of the principle is that things are lighter underwater. The exact reduction in weight is equal to the amount of water that is displaced by the object. Then objects heavier than the amount of water displaced will sink.

Buoyancy

What happens to objects that are lighter than they amount of water they displace? This causes the object to float. As long as the object weighs less than the amount of water it displaces, it will float.

Demo!