Confusing the Complicated Man

The secret of Archimedes

According to the Archimedes buoyancy principle a floating object displaces its own weight in water.

The proof it turns out is one of astounding simplicity.

The story according to tradition went as follows, Archimedes, ancient Greek philosopher mathematician and engineer had to find a method to establish the density of a certain object, a gold crown in this case. That part of the story is not of much importance to us. He was to be in the public baths with a model sailing boat with the water to the brim, and he realised that the water spilt over the edge was the same as that occupied by his drifting model.

Then, according to popular legend he got out running naked down the street shouting “Eureka! Eureka! I have it! I have it!”

The solution is one of devilishly deceptive simplicity.

Suppose an object floats and displaces a given amount of water. Any given volume of water can be measured by it's mass. In other words then, the mass displaced by our object is the same as the volume displaced, and the result directly follows.

What appears to be so confusing in it all must be that the “actual” weight of the object does not come into it! In the forums last year I suggested this challenge, to explain the commonly known principle of Archimedes as applied in engineering.

One wonders what AI would give you? 

It is not a complicated thing that confuses man's simple mind, it is the simple thing that confuses man's complicated mind.