As reported in Ref., this story of the golden crown does not appear in the known works of Archimedes. The Vitruvius tale continues describing the method of measurement. Excited by the discovery, he cried out "Eureka!, that is "I have found it!". But, when he was taking a bath, noticing that the level of the water increased when he entered the vessel, he immediately realized that this effect could be used to measure the volumes. The scientist was quite troubled, because he had to determine the volume of this irregular object without melting it. Since the object was quite beautiful, he asked to avoid damaging the crown. Having some doubts, the king asked Archimedes to determine whether some silver had been used by the goldsmith. According to Vitruvius, King Hiero of Syracuse ordered a votive crown for a temple. Vitruvius tells us that Archimedes devised a method for measuring the volume of objects with irregular shape: this description is also known as the tale on the golden crown. Greek mathematician and physicist, inventor and astronomer, Archimedes lived in the third century BC, and died during the Siege of Syracuse, killed by a Roman soldier. The Architecture is also the source of one of the most famous and popular anecdote on Archimedes of Syracuse, one of the greatest scientists in classical antiquity. Surviving from the classical antiquity, this book inspired several architects and artists of the Renaissance. He wrote a book on architecture, The Architecture, that he dedicated to the emperor Augustus. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, who lived during the first century BC, was a Roman writer, architect and engineer. But, using a vessel for a water-clock, the approach that Vitruvius described is possible. The measurement, as reported in The Architecture, seems to be difficult to realize. The method is based on the immersion of bodies, allowing the evaluation of their volume in the case of irregular shapes. 1 The Vitruvius' Tale of Archimedes and the Golden Crown Amelia Carolina Sparavigna Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy The paper discusses the tale that we can find in The Architecture by Vitruvius, on a method used by Archimedes to determine the percentage of gold and silver in a crown.
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