Eureka (word)
Eureka (
Etymology
"Eureka" comes from the Ancient Greek word εὕρηκα heúrēka, meaning "I have found (it)", which is the first person singular perfect indicative active of the verb εὑρίσκω heurískō "I find".[1] It is closely related to heuristic, which refers to experience-based techniques for problem-solving, learning, and discovery.
Pronunciation
The accent of the English word is on the second syllable, following Latin rules of accent, which require that a penult (next-to-last syllable) must be accented if it contains a long vowel. In the Greek pronunciation, the first syllable has a high pitch accent, because the Ancient Greek rules of accent do not force accent to the penult unless the ultima (last syllable) has a long vowel.
The initial /h/ is dropped in modern Greek and in several other European languages, including Catalan, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and English, but preserved in others, such as Finnish, Danish, and German.
Archimedes
The exclamation "Eureka!" is attributed to the ancient Greek scholar
Archimedes' insight led to the solution of a problem posed by
Authenticity
This story first appeared in written form in Vitruvius's books of architecture, two centuries after it supposedly took place.[4] Some scholars have doubted the accuracy of this tale, on the grounds that the votive crown was a fine item, thus an impure crown would displace water only minutely, compared to a pure one. Precise means needed to measure this minute difference was not available at the time.[5][6] For the problem posed to Archimedes, though, there is a simple method which requires no precision equipment: using a balance, compare the weight of the crown against pure gold. While they are still suspended from the arms of the balance, simultaneously submerge the crown and the gold in water. If the volumes are the same, the balance remains in equilibrium, meaning that their densities are the same and therefore the crown must be pure gold. But if the density of the crown is less (due to being alloyed with another metal like silver), increased buoyancy of the crown results in imbalance.[7] Galileo Galilei himself weighed in on the controversy, suggesting a design for a hydrostatic balance that could be used to compare the dry weight of an object with the weight of the same object submerged in water.[8]
Names and mottos
California
The expression is also the state motto of California, referring to the momentous
The city of Eureka, California, founded in 1850, uses the California State Seal as its official seal. Eureka is a considerable distance from Sutter's Mill, but was the jumping off point of a smaller gold rush in nearby Trinity County, California in 1850. It is the largest of at least eleven remaining US cities and towns named for the exclamation, "eureka!". As a result of the extensive use of the exclamation dating from 1849, there were nearly 40 locales so named by the 1880s in a nation that had none in the 1840s.[10] Many places, works of culture, and other objects have since been named "Eureka"; see Eureka (disambiguation) for a list.
Australia
"Eureka" was also associated with a gold rush in
Mathematics
Another mathematician, Carl Friedrich Gauss, echoed Archimedes when in 1796 he wrote in his diary, "ΕΥΡΗΚΑ! num = Δ + Δ + Δ", referring to his discovery that any positive integer could be expressed as the sum of at most three triangular numbers.[12] This result is now known as Gauss' Eureka theorem[13] and is a special case of what later became known as the Fermat polygonal number theorem.
See also
- Heuristic – Problem-solving method
- Eureka effect – Human experience of suddenly understanding a previously incomprehensible problem or concept
- Serendipity – Unplanned, fortunate discovery
References
- Perseus Project
- ^ "IGCSE Physics Notes: Using Archimedes Principle to Find the Density of an Object". A Star Maths & Physics Tutors. Retrieved 2012-06-06.
- ^ Tom Clegg (2001-04-08). "Eureka!". Retrieved 2012-06-06.
- ^ Vitruvius on Architecture, IX: Introduction: 9–12, translated into English and in the original Latin.
- .
- ^ Biello, David (December 2006). "Fact or Fiction?: Archimedes Coined the Term "Eureka!" in the Bath". Scientific American. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
- ISBN 9780716783398.
- ^ Rorres, Chris. "The Golden Crown: Galileo's Balance". Drexel University. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
- ^ Official state law defining the motto. Accessed February 26, 2007. Archived June 28, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ California Place Names, by Erwin Gudde, p. 105
- ISBN 9780816078851.
- ISBN 0-486-41150-8.
- S2CID 122203472.