100 Greatest Science Discoveries of All Time - Levers and Buoyancy

Levers and Buoyancy

Year of Discovery: 260 B.C.


 What is it? The two fundamental principles underlying all physics and engineering.
 Who Discovered It? Archimedes.

  The concepts of buoyancy (water pushes up on an object with a force equal to the weight of water that the object dis places) and of levers (a force pushing down on one side of
a lever creates a lifting force on the other side that is proportional to the lengths of the two sides of the lever) lie at the foundation of all quantitative science and engineering. They represent humanity’s earliest breakthroughs in understanding the relationships in the physical world around us and in devising mathematical ways to describe the physical phenomena of the world. Countless engineering and scientific advances have depended on those two discoveries. You can read all about it here!