Eureka (word)
Eureka ('Eureka!', or 'Heureka'; Greek ηὕρηκα) is a famous exclamation attributed to Archimedes. He reportedly uttered the word when he suddenly understood that the volume of an irregular object could be calculated by finding the volume of water displaced when the object was submerged in water, subsequently leaping out of his bathtub and running through the streets of Syracuse naked. "Heureka" is the 1st person singular perfect indicative active of the Greek verb heuriskein, meaning "to find"; it means "I have found it!", or more accurately, "I am in a state of having found it". As a result, "Eureka!" has become an interjection which is used to celebrate a discovery (whether a major scientific truth or something as minor as the finding of a lost item).
The expression is quoted as the state motto of California, referring to the momentous discovery of gold near Sutter's Mill in 1848.
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