This now famous term is attributed to the ancient Greek thinker Archimedes who was so excited upon his discovery of the Archimedes Principle that he ran naked outside while taking a bath (he made his discovery while in the bathtub) and excitedly shouted "Eureka! Eureka!". It is pronounced you reek-a.
So, what is this principle? Why not let this clever poem (said to have originated in the 1950s) tell it all:
ARCHIMEDES' PRINCIPLE
Students of physics are frequently told
Of experiments performed by great physicists of old.
Like Boyles and Charles -- but greatest of these
Was the Principle discovered by Archimedes.
The Sicilian King, Archimedes was told
Ordered a crown from a large lump of gold.
And though the weight of the gold was completely correct
The goldsmith's sly eye made the King suspect,
That he'd made up the weight with some cheaper metal
And did steal some gold, that his debts he might settle.
Good old Archie had a problem of outstanding immensity
He had no idea yet, whatsoever, of density.
Climbing into a bath he received a surprise
When he noticed the water beginning to rise.
He suddenly snapped, and let out a scream
As he realised, with joy, his long-wished-for dream.
He found the upthrust, produced on the body based
To be equal in weight to the water displaced.
And soon volumes and weights would make it quite plain
What various metals the crown could contain.
And so he could easily show to his Royalty
The absolute proof of the goldsmith's disloyalty.
Leaping out of the bath at remarkable rate
He made for the palace by doorway and gate.
But the men in the street were completely confounded
To see a naked man shout "Eureka! I've found it!"
----------------------------------------
Some wag has since added a sequel joke to this:
Archimedes had been so preoccupied with solving the problem for the King that he had not bathed for a week. Worse, it was the hot summer season. And when he got into the bathtub, he had forgotten to soap himself.
So, when he ran out into the streets of Syracuse, shouting "Eureka! Eureka!", offended citizens shot back: "You reek too, ah!".
-----------------------------------------------
My other great-thinker joke is this one about the French philosopher and mathematician Descartes, pronounced dey-cart. He is regarded as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry. So, here's the joke:
There was this amazing horse that could do maths! You could teach it arithmetic, algebra was a breeze, and it could even prove theorems in Euclidean geometry, but when you tried to teach it analytical geometry, it would rear back on its hind legs, kick ferociously, neigh loudly and violently shake its head.
The moral of this story? You can't put Descartes before the (dey) horse.
-----------------------------------------------
Descarte is also famous for his philosophical dictum, "Cogito ergo sum", or "I think, therefore I exist."
The Internet threw up this "walks into the bar" joke about him...
Rene Descartes walks into his favourite bar. The barkeeper asks him, "Would you like your usual drink, Monsieur Descartes?"
Descartes replies, "I think not today," and immediately disappears in a flash!
-----------------------------------------------------
Last one...
Prove that the less you know, the more you'll be paid (hmm.. does that sound like some people we know of?)
Proof:
We know that Knowledge = Power.
We also know that Power = Work/Time,
We also know that Time is Money.
i.e. Time = Money.
Therefore,
Power = Work/Money
Thus, knowledge = Work/Money.
or Money = Work/Knowledge.
So, for a given work, if knowledge is less, money will be more.
(Proved.)
No comments:
Post a Comment