A thin old man in a damp towel runs barefoot out of a steaming bathhouse into a sunny street, arm raised and shouting, while a man drops a basket of figs and laughing townspeople, a pointing child and a barking dog look on, with a harbour and temple behind them.
King Hiero of Syracuse suspected his new gold crown had been mixed with silver, and asked Archimedes to find out without damaging it. Stepping into a full bath, Archimedes saw the water spill over the rim and realised that an object pushes aside its own volume of water, so the crown could be measured against an equal weight of pure gold. The story goes that he leapt out and ran home through the streets, still dripping, shouting “Eureka!”, “I have found it!”