Which problem was archimedes trying to solve

It is usually easy to find the mass of an object, but finding the volume of an irregularly shaped object can be a challenge. This relates to is a famous story where ancient Greek scientist Archimedes was asked by King Hiero of Syracuse to find out if the gold wreath made by Hiero's goldsmith was truly pure gold and not mixed with some other alloy.

The king suspected his goldsmith was embezzling some of the gold. If the wreath was pure gold, it would have a certain density. If it was made of a mixture, the density would be different.

However, in order to find the density of the wreath, its volume must be determined. This was the problem Archimedes faced. After thinking about it for a while, Archimedes then took a bath to find a solution to the problem. This lesson will answer those questions. Useful tool: Units Conversion. One solution Archimedes proposed was to crush the irregularly shaped wreath into a cube to determine its volume.

But steel of the same weight but shaped as a bowl will float because the weight gets distributed over a larger area and the steel displaces water equal to its weight. This is how large ships that weigh several thousand tons float in the ocean. For more details and to conduct a demonstration experiment to verify the Archimedes Principle, contact Dr.

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International Services. Exchange Student. Moving to Kentucky. Apply Visit Give Search. Just like the water spilled over the edge when Archimedes entered his bathtub, the water in the glass will spill over when ice cubes are added to it. If the water that spilled out were weighed weight is a downward force , it would equal the upward buoyant force on the object.

From the buoyant force, the volume or average density of the object can be determined. Archimedes was able to determine that the crown was not pure gold due to the volume of the displaced water, because even though the weight of the crown was identical to the weight of the gold that the king gave the crown maker, the volume was different due the various densities of the metals. The Archimedes principle is a very useful and versatile tool. It can be useful in measuring the volume of irregular objects, such as gold crowns, as well as explaining the behaviors of any object placed in any fluid.

Archimedes' principle describes how ships float, submarines dive, hot air balloons fly, and many others examples, according to Science Clarified. The Archimedes principle is also used in a large variety of scientific research subjects including medical, engineering, entomology, engineering, and geology.

The Archimedes principle has many uses in the medical and dentistry field and is used to determine the densities of bones and teeth. The volume fraction of the cancellous bone can be used in various age and health studies including being an index in aging studies, osteoporosis, bone strength, stiffness, and elasticity studies. Various methods using Archimedes principle were tested in order to increase reproducibility of the measurements: one where the bone was submerged in distilled water, another where the bone was submerged in a water and surfactant solution, and a third where the bone was placed in a sealed container where the changes in gas pressures were recorded.

An article published in in the journal Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology is similar in nature to the previous article where various methods were used in order to determine the reproducibility, one of which was using Archimedes principle. The Archimedes principle was compared with using cone beam computed tomography CBCT to measure the volume of the teeth.

The tests comparing the Archimedes principle and CBCT measurements showed that the latter would be an accurate tool in planning dental procedures. A simple, reliable, cost-effective design for a submarine described in a paper in the journal Informatics, Electronics, and Vision, is based on the Archimedes principle. Submarines, according to the authors, are designed to travel while completely submerged underwater and rely on the Archimedes principle in order to maintain a constant depth.

The design of this prototype submarine uses calculations involving the mass, density, and volume of both the submarine and the displaced water in order to determine the size needed of the ballast tank, which will determine the amount of water than can fill it and therefore the depth to which the submarine can dive.

While the Archimedes principle is used in submarine design to help them dive and resurface, it also explains the reason why some bugs can walk on water. In a study published in Applied Physics Letters, researchers used a method of measuring shadows created by the water striders in order to measure the curvatures in the water surface. These dips can then be used to derive the water volume that was displaced leading to the force used to keep the water-bugs afloat.