/oss/taxonomy/term/3326/all en /oss/article/history/it-true-archimedes-formulated-his-famous-principle-based-observation-he-made-he-immersed-himself <p>Archimedes’ principle states that any object, totally or partially immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object. But. it was not the discovery of the principle named after him that sent the Greek mathematician, physicist and inventor running naked through the street yelling “Eureka,” meaning “I have found it.” What he supposedly found was a solution to a problem posed to him by King Hiero of Syracuse who had suspected that a goldsmith tasked with making him a gold crown had substituted some of the gold with silver.</p> Fri, 04 Mar 2022 20:40:18 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9042 at /oss /oss/article/general-science/soaring-helium <p>You’re at a birthday party and the place is full of helium-filled balloons stuck to the ceiling. How are these balloons defying gravity? No magic involved! The law of buoyancy as first stated in the third century BC by Archimedes is at work: Any object, totally or partially immersed in a fluid or liquid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object. Helium is lighter than air, so a balloon filled with this gas weighs less than the air it displaces and will therefore be subjected to an upward force.</p> Wed, 14 Oct 2020 15:28:19 +0000 Caitlin Bard, OSS Intern 8445 at /oss /oss/article/did-you-know/luminescent-chemistry-lava-lamps <p><span>If you think back to the 60’s and 70’s your memories are probably illuminated by a lamp filled with swirling globs of colourful goop that really </span><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-history-of-the-lava-lamp-21201966/">didn’t shed much light at all</a>.</p> <p><span>Lava lamps were </span><a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US3570156">invented</a> in 1963 by a British accountant, Edward Craven-Walker, and marketed under the name Astro Lamps. The name might have changed since then, but the chemistry largely hasn’t.</p> Thu, 19 Jul 2018 16:54:28 +0000 Ada McVean B.Sc. 7177 at /oss