[Phys-L] Re: Eureka!

[Bernard Cleyet <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>]

OK, some of galileo's work was gedanken *, but are we not to believe
Voltaire and Newton's niece?


""One day in the year 1666 Newton had gone to the country, and seeing
the fall of an apple, as his niece told me, let himself be led into a
deep meditation on the cause which thus draws every object along a line
whose extension would pass almost through the center of the earth.'

Voltaire (1738)"  quoted in Gravitation ** p.3

*  http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/16/2/2


** appropriately weighs 5.8 #, the paper back ed.!


bc

A misquote?   When Kekulè recounted his dream to his colleagues at a
scientific convention in 1890, he concluded with the remarks "Let us
learn to dream gentlemen and then we may perhaps find the truth."


Fakhruddin, Hasan wrote:

> Thanks Scott for the URL of the very informative site in this regard.
> So, indeed his Eureka was not for the discovery of buoyancy....probably
> that came later.  This story probably belongs to the same category as
>    - Newton discovery of gravity from the apple incident
>    - Galileo's experiment with large and small balls from the top of the
>
>      Tower of Pisa
>    - Kelkule discovering ring structure of benzene molecule from his
> dream
>      of a snake biting its own tail
>    - others???
>
> ~Hasan Fakhruddin
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Forum for Physics Educators [mailto:PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu] On
> Behalf Of Scott Goelzer
> Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2005 9:37 PM
> To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
> Subject: Re: Eureka!
>
> One of the best jokes ever passed down.
> A naked man running through the streets yelling 'I found it'.
> Would the neighbors immediately presume a major bit of scientific
> insight has been achieved or perhaps something else.
>
> but more useful
>
> <http://www.math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Crown/CrownIntro.html>
>
> Scott
>
>
>
>
> *******************************************
> Scott Goelzer
> Physics Teacher
> Coe-Brown Northwood Academy
> Northwood NH 03261
> sgoelzer@coebrownacademy.com
> *******************************************
>
>
> On Dec 4, 2005, at 8:42 PM, Fakhruddin, Hasan wrote:
>
>
> > Hi!
> > A questions about the famous story of Archimedes and the King's crown:
> >
> > What exactly did Archimedes discover when he jumped into and out of
> > the bath tub?  Did he discover he could find volume by displacement
> > method and hence the density of the crown or buoyancy or both?  If
> > he discovered buoyancy I don't see how he could figure out how to
> > find density using buoyancy in a split second?  What's the exact
> > story?  Thanks,
> >
> > ~Hasan Fakhruddin
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