245 BC

Events in 245 BC 1

• 245 BC Eureka! — Archimedes discovers buoyancy On Floating Bodies: a submerged body displaces its weight in fluid King Hiero II suspected a goldsmith had mixed silver into a supposedly pure gold crown. He tasked Archimedes to test it without destroying it. The solution came to Archimedes while stepping into a public bath — he noticed the water level rose as he entered, and realised that a body displaces a volume of fluid equal to its own volume. Since gold is denser than silver, a silver-adulterated crown would displace more water than a pure gold crown of the same weight. Legend says he leapt from the bath and ran naked through the streets shouting "Eureka!" (I have found it!). He formalised the principle in his treatise On Floating Bodies, the first systematic work in hydrostatics.