A PROPOSAL TO APPROACH ARCHIMEDES' PRINCIPLE FROM THE INVESTIGATION OF THE EPISODE OF THE CROWN

Abstract

This work aimed to collaborate with the approach of Archimedes' Principle in the basic educational context, considering the nuances of the historical development of this scientific knowledge. He took as his starting point the historical episode involving Archimedes and the task assigned to him of determining whether the crown of King Hieron, of Syracuse, had been forged. There is a very widespread version of this event, according to which Archimedes solved the problem by discovering the buoyancy when bathing. This version was narrated by the Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius, who lived approximately two centuries after Archimedes, in the 1st century BC. Despite having a series of physical and historical conceptual inconsistencies, the narrative continues to be propagated in the educational context. On the other hand, Galileo Galilei suggested, in 1586, in his work called La Bilancetta, that Archimedes had used a Hydrostatic Balance to solve the crown problem. Galileo's version of the episode is physically consistent, as well as supported by historical evidence discovered by historians. This version, however, is practically absent from the school context. Equally absent is the existence of a limit of validity for Archimedes' Principle, highlighted by the so-called Galileo Hydrostatic Paradox. In this sense, seeking to contribute to overcoming these gaps and distortions, this work proposes an Educational Product that problematizes, from a physical and historical point of view, the best-known version of the corona episode. This is a didactic sequence, aimed at high school, which introduces, in an investigative manner, excerpts from primary sources by Vitruvius and Galileo, as well as including demonstrative experimental activities, explored according to a dialogical and investigative bias, which include the Hydrostatic Balance, in addition to a validity limit for Archimedes' Principle.