Archimedes Don’t Know Jack

Look! It floats!

I was giving my son a bath one weeknight. Being the “Mr. Inquisitive” that he is, he always asks me interesting and intriguing questions on the wonders of the world around us, how things work, why things happen, etc. My son looked up at me with the usual “here comes a question” look, pointed to his nether-region and made the following announcement: “Hey dad! Look! My junk floats! Hey, why does my junk float in the tub?” So how the hell do you explain that one? I didn’t really answer; I was flabbergasted.  Actually I was just laughing really hard and couldn’t stop. After the bath, I consulted with my wife, the chemist, who reminded me of good old Archimedes and his many scientific discoveries. Ding-dong, my bell was rung, and it started coming back to me…..my CRS (can’t remember shit) syndrome went into remission for a bit and visions of college chemistry and physics flashed through my head. Here’s a brief bio for those of you that also may have forgotten or who may have never heard of this Greek geek. Archimedes was a Greek mathematician who lived from 287 B.C. to 212 B.C. He was a pretty smart dude and super advanced for his time. Of his many advancements to the scientific world, one of the most famous, was the Archimedes’ Principle. This stated that a body immersed in a fluid, water in this case, experiences a buoyant force equal to the fluid that is displaced. The story goes that one day he noticed that the water level rose when he got in the tub. He used this observation of water displacement to discern that the king’s crown was truly solid gold…..if you’ve never heard the story, look it up! Remember this…..He didn’t discover buoyancy and the water displacement stuff until his adulthood. My son made this discovery at the age of five. Archimedes ain’t got shit on my son.