Archimedes was no slouch! The Greek mathematician was also a physicist, engineer, inventor and astronomer in his spare time!

He is most well known for his “Eureka moment”…

The most commonly related anecdote about Archimedes tells how he invented a method for measuring the volume of an object with an irregular shape. According to Vitruvius, a new crown in the shape of a laurel wreath had been made for King Hiero II and Archimedes was asked to determine whether it was of solid gold – or whether silver had been added by a dishonest goldsmith. Archimedes had to solve the problem without damaging the crown, so he could not melt it down in order to measure its density as a cube (which would have been the simplest solution).

While taking a bath, he noticed that the level of the water rose as he got in. He realised that this effect could be used to determine the volume of the crown. For practical purposes water is incompressible, so the crown would displace an amount of water equal to its own volume. By dividing the weight of the crown by the volume of water displaced, its density could be obtained.

In other words, the density of the crown would be lower if cheaper and less dense metals had been added…

Archimedes then took to the streets naked  (so excited by his discovery that he had forgotten to dress!)  crying “Eureka!” (“I have found it!”)

So what is your Archimedes Riddle?

You are sitting in a rubber boat in a swimming pool. In the boat lies a stone. You throw this stone from the boat into the pool. Will the water level in the pool rise or drop?

Over to you…