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Testing a Gold Crown with Water — Archimedes' Buoyancy and the Eureka Method
Penny

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Penny

2. uNtulikazi 2026DK
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Testing a Gold Crown with Water — Archimedes' Buoyancy and the Eureka Method

King Hiero of Syracuse suspected his goldsmith had cut his crown with cheaper silver, but how do you check without melting it down? Around 250 BC Archimedes solved it in the bath: stepping in, he saw the water rise by his own volume and realised a submerged object displaces its own volume of water. Density — weight divided by volume — then betrays any cheating, because gold is far denser than silver. This blueprint reproduces both the famous displacement test and Archimedes' more precise underwater-balance method, and states the buoyancy principle that floats every ship.
Ophakathi
2

Imiyalelo

1

Understand the problem

You must find whether a crown is pure gold without damaging it. The key is density — weight divided by volume. Pure gold is very dense (about 19.3 g/cm³); gold mixed with lighter silver (about 10.5 g/cm³) is less dense, so the same weight of it takes up more space.
2

The Eureka insight

When a solid is lowered into water it pushes aside — displaces — exactly its own volume of water. So even an oddly shaped crown's volume can be measured by how much water it displaces. This is what Archimedes realised watching the bath overflow.
3

Set up an equal-arm balance

Hang a balance scale, or make an equal-arm balance from a rod and string with a small pan on each end, so it swings level and can compare two weights precisely.

Amathuluzi adingekayo:

Isikali sesilinganisoIsikali sesilinganiso
4

Balance the crown against pure gold in air

On the balance, set the crown against an equal weight of known pure gold, in air, until the two sides hang exactly level. Now they weigh the same — the only question left is whether they take up the same volume.

Izinto zokwakha zalesi sinyathelo:

Isigaxa SomthofuIsigaxa Somthofu1 ucezu

Amathuluzi adingekayo:

Isikali sesilinganisoIsikali sesilinganiso
5

Submerge both in water

Lower both objects, still on the balance, into a vessel of water. Each is pushed up by a buoyant force equal to the weight of the water it displaces — the bulkier object is pushed up harder.

Izinto zokwakha zalesi sinyathelo:

AmanziAmanzi5 amalitha

Amathuluzi adingekayo:

Ijeke Lengilazi ElinesivaloIjeke Lengilazi Elinesivalo
Intambo Yekotini YasekhishiniIntambo Yekotini Yasekhishini
6

Read the verdict

If the crown is pure gold it has the same volume as the gold and the balance stays level under water. If it is adulterated with lighter silver it is bulkier, displaces more water, is buoyed up more, and its side rises — proof the crown is not pure gold.

Amathuluzi adingekayo:

Isikali sesilinganisoIsikali sesilinganiso
7

Or measure density directly

The simpler displacement version: weigh the crown, then submerge it in a brim-full vessel and measure the overflow — that volume is the crown's volume. Density = weight ÷ volume. Compare to pure gold's 19.3 g/cm³; an adulterated crown reads lower.

Amathuluzi adingekayo:

Ijeke Lengilazi ElinesivaloIjeke Lengilazi Elinesivalo
8

State Archimedes' principle

Any body in a fluid is pushed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid it displaces. That single law tells the crown from a fake, floats a loaded ship, and lifts a balloon — one of the oldest exact laws of physics, from around 250 BC.

Izinto

4

Amathuluzi Adingekayo

3

CC0 Isizinda Somphakathi

Le blueprint ikhishwe ngaphansi kwe-CC0. Ukhululekile ukukopisha, ukuguqula, ukusabalalisa, nokusebenzisa ngaphandle kwemvume.

Sekela uMenzi ngokuthenga imikhiqizo nge-Blueprint yabo IKhomishane Yomenzi kumiswe ngabathengisi, noma dala inguqulo entsha yale Blueprint bese uyifaka njengoxhumaniso ku-Blueprint yakho ukuze wabelane ngemali engenayo.

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