[extropy-chat] akerue

[Spike]

> As for the air bubbles, I hope that Archimedes presented the 
> king with some sort of margin of error (after he calmed down of
course).
> 
> BAL

I would hope so Brian.  The measurement of density of a crown
would be extremely tricky with the technology available
at the time.  It wouldn't be a slam dunk even today, if
water displacement methods are used to find volume.  You
would have surface tension affects, possibly allowing the
water level in the tub to be slightly higher than the
drain hole for instance, as can be seen with a reversed
meniscus in an overfilled water glass.  Since the diameter
of the tub would need to be sufficient to fit the crown,
the possible error from surface tension alone would be
enough to swamp the signal from a little bit of silver
mixed with the gold.

I would like someone to loan me a crown to play with, 
so that I might see if I could replicate Archimedes'
measurement.  Anyone have a spare gold crown lying about?

spike