 The Gold Crown
The king of Syracuse, Hiero, wanted a golden crown. He weighed a lump of gold and
ordered a goldsmith to make him a crown with it. The goldsmith returned with a crown that
weighed exactly the same as the lump of gold. The king was happy.
After
a while, however, the king grew suspicious. The goldsmith might not have put all the gold
into the crown. He might have used some other metal. The king called Archimedes to help
him determine whether any other metal had been mixed into the crown.
Archimedes thought and thought, but he couldn't figure out a way to determine whether
the goldsmith had melted silver in the crown. One day he decided to go to the baths. As he
got into the tub, some water sloshed out. He had solved his problem. Archimedes ran out on
the streets shouting "Eureka, Eureka!" He was so excited that he hadnt
bothered to put his clothes on!
The experiment was very simple. Archimedes filled a jar to the brim, dropped the crown
in it, and gathered the water that flowed out. Then he replaced the water in the jar and
dropped in a lump of gold the same weight as the crown. He found that the lump of gold
caused less water to overflow than the crown. This meant that the crown occupied more
volume, or space, than the lump of gold. This, in turn meant that the crown was not
all-pure gold and that the king had been cheated.
Death of Archimedes
212 BC- When a Roman army under Marcellus attacked the Greek city-state of Syracuse, a
seaport on Sicily, Archimedes organized the defense. He invented some mechanical weapons,
which he mounted on the citys walls. These machines were tested in battle. The
Romans lost. Marcellus then decided to besiege the city. The Roman army set camp. 
During a truce, Marcellus studied the citys walls from the inside. He noticed
that one place in the wall did not have traps there. During a celebration, the Syracusans
feasted. Marcellus led some Romans to the undefended part of the wall. No one noticed
them.
Whhen the Romans began looting, the Roman general gave orders that Archimedes was to be
spared. Unfortunately, Archimedes was working out a problem. He had not noticed that the
city was captured. A Roman soldier came and asked him to go with him. When Archimedes
refused to go until he had finished working out his problem, the enraged soldier
unsheathed his blade and killed him.


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