# Running naked through the streets shouting, "Eureka!" So? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 16, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849 "2015-04-16T17:37:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/1 "2015-04-16T17:37:42Z")
If Archimedes ran through the streets shouting, “eureka”, would there be much eyebrow raising? What was the Greek attitude to public nudity circa 250 BC? ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/2 "2015-04-16T17:50:38Z")
Unless he was running saying “look at my dick, bitches” it wouildn’t have been much of a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/3 "2015-04-16T17:56:26Z")
Athletic endeavors in Ancient Greece were generally conducted [bollock naked](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_%28ancient_Greece%29). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/4 "2015-04-16T18:09:03Z")
From what I’ve heard, it would have been considered unseemly but not obscene. The ancient Greeks didn’t have an issue with nudity but they did feel there were rules of decorum. Being naked in a public bath or while wrestling with your best buddy was fine - expected even, so you’d probably get a disapproving look for not being nude. But you were supposed to wear clothes on public streets so running down one naked would be seen as wrong. Think of it as the equivalent of a contemporary American man going topless. Nobody would think a thing about it if he’s at a beach but people would disapprove if he went into a store that way. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/5 "2015-04-16T18:20:25Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Think of it as the equivalent of a contemporary American man going topless. Or a 19th century American man leaving off his top hat. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/6 "2015-04-16T18:47:01Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > Unless he was running saying “look at my dick, bitches” it wouildn’t have been much of a problem. Maybe this sounds less offensive in Greek: κοιτάξουμε πουλί μου, σκύλες ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/7 "2015-04-16T18:50:16Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > Maybe this sounds less offensive in Greek: κοιτάξουμε πουλί μου, σκύλες I love the 'Dope. Which Google translate says, “Look at my bird, bitches.” ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/8 "2015-04-16T18:50:54Z")
… I’d love it \*more \*if we could get a pronunciation guide. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/9 "2015-04-16T18:59:55Z")
“Eureka” in the original Greek means “I’ve found it.” So I’m sure there were a few people back then saying, “Good for you, Arch. But most of us ‘found it’ back when we were kids.” ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/10 "2015-04-16T19:03:10Z")
Wel, it was apparently unusual enough to go down in history as an oft-repeated anecdote, so it probably wasn’t the kind of thing that you would see every day. "Do they call me Archimedes, the astronomer? Nooo… Do they call me Archimedes, the great engineer? Nooo… But you run naked through the streets of Syracuse _once_… ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/11 "2015-04-16T20:30:10Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Athletic endeavors in Ancient Greece were generally conducted [bollock naked](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_%28ancient_Greece%29). Yep. “Gymnos” means naked. And that’s your word “gym”. It’s the “naked place”. So if you want to hang out in the buff at your local gym, that makes perfect sense. Of course, when I tried explaining that to the security guard, he wouldn’t listen. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/12 "2015-04-16T20:56:40Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Yep. “Gymnos” means naked. And that’s your word “gym”. It’s the “naked place”. So if you want to hang out in the buff at your local gym, that makes perfect sense. > > Of course, when I tried explaining that to the security guard, he wouldn’t listen. The benefits of a classical education. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/13 "2015-04-16T21:00:49Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Think of it as the equivalent of a contemporary American man going topless. Nobody would think a thing about it if he’s at a beach but people would disapprove if he went into a store that way. In various parts of the nation, that’s probably not all that strange. I’d venture to guess that it’s more like running out into the street in your boxers. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/14 "2015-04-16T21:15:55Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > Maybe this sounds less offensive in Greek: κοιτάξουμε πουλί μου, σκύλες > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I love the 'Dope. > > Which Google translate says, “Look at my bird, bitches.” Just curious: does “σκύλες” which I am assuming means “bitches”, refer to canines or to humans? ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/15 "2015-04-16T22:54:05Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Wel, it was apparently unusual enough to go down in history as an oft-repeated anecdote, so it probably wasn’t the kind of thing that you would see every day. This story comes to us from a Roman architect - Vitruvis - and was written about 200 years after Archimedes death - but the real problem with the story, as Galileo pointed out, is that Archimedes couldn’t have possibly tested his theory with the crown in question to know if he was right or wrong. _The difference in the volume of overflow produced by immersing a pure gold crown versus an adulterated one would have been too minute to discern. Galileo could not believe that the vaunted Archimedes would have posed such a flawed technique. “[T]his seems, so to say, a crude thing,” mused the twenty-two-year-old Galileo, “far from scientific precision; and it will seem even more so to those who have read and understood the very subtle inventions of this divine man in his own writings; from which one most clearly realizes how inferior all other minds are to Archimedes’…”_ [The Naked Scientist](http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/articles/article/the-original-naked-scientist/) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/16 "2015-04-17T00:41:06Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > “Eureka” in the original Greek means “I’ve found it.” > > So I’m sure there were a few people back then saying, “Good for you, Arch. But most of us ‘found it’ back when we were kids.” Or, in the words of Benny Hill: “\*He said to them, ‘Eureka, I’ve found it!’ And they told him what he could do with it!” \* ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/17 "2015-04-17T02:57:36Z")
Well, that depends on just how much adulteration there was, of course. But gold is enough denser than any other substance known in antiquity that even a relatively small adulteration should be detectable. Especially when you consider that the jeweler didn’t think it’d be detectable at all, and so probably wouldn’t have limited himself to a small amount. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/18 "2015-04-17T03:34:04Z")
Of course, he could have measured the displacement of the bird… ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/19 "2015-04-17T05:04:30Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Yep. “Gymnos” means naked. And that’s your word “gym”. It’s the “naked place”. So if you want to hang out in the buff at your local gym, that makes perfect sense. > > Of course, when I tried explaining that to the security guard, he wouldn’t listen. Maybe he just couldn’t understand what you were saying. Maybe it was all Greek to him. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849/20 "2015-04-17T05:06:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, that depends on just how much adulteration there was, of course. But gold is enough denser than any other substance known in antiquity that even a relatively small adulteration should be detectable. Especially when you consider that the jeweler didn’t think it’d be detectable at all, and so probably wouldn’t have limited himself to a small amount. As a point of reference, 18K gold, which should pass pretty well, is 75% gold. The expected adulterants might be silver and copper, which you can fiddle with amounts of to adjust the color of the alloy - the silver makes it paler, the copper makes it reddish. 18K gold has a density of about 16.5 g/cc vs. 19.3 g/cc for pure gold. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-naked-through-the-streets-shouting-eureka-so/717849.md?page=2)