Wednesday, January 29, 2020

The secret society - illuminati Essay Example for Free

The secret society illuminati Essay This article is about the secret society. For the film, see Illuminata (film). For the Muslim esoteric school, see Illuminationism. For other uses, see Illuminati (disambiguation). Adam Weishaupt (1748–1830), founder of the Bavarian Illuminati. The Illuminati (plural of Latin illuminatus, enlightened) is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776 to oppose superstition, prejudice, religious influence over public life, abuses of state power, and to support womens education and gender equality. The Illuminati were outlawed along with other secret societies by the Bavarian government leadership with the encouragement of the Roman Catholic Church, and permanently disbanded in 1785.[1] In the several years following, the group was vilified by conservative and religious critics who claimed they had regrouped and were responsible for the French Revolution. In subsequent use, Illuminati refers to various organizations claiming or purported to have unsubstantiated links to the original Bavarian Illuminati or similar secret societies, and often alleged to conspire to control world affairs by masterminding events and planting agents in government and corporations to establish a New World Order and gain further political power and influence. Central to some of the most widely known and elaborate conspiracy theories, the Illuminati have been depicted as lurking in the shadows and pulling the strings and levers of power in dozens of novels, movies, television shows, comics, video games, and music videos. The movement was founded on May 1, 1776, in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria) as the Order of the Illuminati, with an initial membership of five,[2] by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt (d. 1830),[3] who was the first lay professor of canon law at the University of Ingolstadt.[1] It was made up of freethinkers as an offshoot of the Enlightenment and seems to have been modeled on the Freemasons.[4] The Illuminatis members took a vow of secrecy and pledged obedience to their superiors. Members were divided into three main classes, each with several degrees, and many Illuminati chapters drew membership from existing Masonic lodges. The goals of the organization included trying to eliminate superstition, prejudice, and the Roman Catholic Churchs domination over government, philosophy, and science; trying to reduce oppressive state abuses of power, and trying to support the education and treatment of women as intellectual equals.[1] Originally Weishaupt had planned the order to be named the Perfectibilists.[2] The group has also been called the Bavarian Illuminati and its ideology has been called Illuminism. Many influential intellectuals and progressive politicians counted themselves as members, including Ferdinand of Brunswick and the diplomat Xavier von Zwack, the second-in-command of the order.[5] The order had branches in most European countries: it reportedly had around 2,000 members over the span of ten years.[1] It attracted literary men such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Gottfried Herder and the reigning dukes of Gotha and Weimar. In 1777, Karl Theodor became ruler of Bavaria. He was a proponent of Enlightened Despotism and his government banned all secret societies including the Illuminati. Internal rupture and panic over succession preceded its downfall.[1] A March 2, 1785 government edict seems to have been deathblow to the Illuminati in Bavaria. Weishaupt had fled and documents and internal correspondences, seized in 1786 and 1787, were subsequently published by the government in 1787.[6] Von Zwacks home was searched to disclose much of the groups literature.[5] Barruel and Robison Between 1797 and 1798 Augustin Barruels Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism and John Robisons Proofs of a Conspiracy both publicized the theory that the Illuminati had survived and represented an ongoing international conspiracy, including the claim that it was behind the French Revolution. Both books proved to be very popular, spurring reprints and paraphrases by others[7] (a prime example is Proofs of the Real Existence, and Dangerous Tendency, Of Illuminism by Reverend Seth Payson, published in 1802).[8] Some response was critical, such as Jean-Joseph Mouniers On the Influence Attributed to Philosophers, Free-Masons, and to the Illuminati on the Revolution of France.[citation needed] Robison and Barruels works made their way to the United States. Across New England, Reverend Jedidiah Morse and others sermonized against the Illuminati, their sermons were printed, and the matter followed in newspapers. The concern died down in the first decade of the 1800s, though had some revival during the Anti-Masonic movement of the 1820s and 30s.[2] Modern Illuminati Several recent and present-day fraternal organizations claim to be descended from the original Bavarian Illuminati and openly use the name Illuminati. Some such groups use a variation on The Illuminati Order in the name of their organization,[9][10] while others such as the Ordo Templi Orientis use Illuminati as a level within their organizations hierarchy. However, there is no evidence that these present-day groups have amassed significant political power or influence, and they promote unsubstantiated links to the Bavarian Illuminati as a means of attracting membership instead of trying to remain secret.[1]

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

William Faulkners A Rose For Emily Essay -- essays research papers

Rather than stating the true meaning of his works, William Faulkner generally uses symbolism to portray the depth of his tales. Throughout the story â€Å"A Rose For Emily,† time is a continuous theme that is portrayed through symbols. The past, present, and future are represented by different people, places, and things. One of which such symbols, the main character herself, represents the essence of the past through her father, her house, and her lover.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Historically, the Grierson name was one of the most respected names in Jefferson. Throughout his lifetime, Mr. Grierson played various roles in the community to further the reputation of his name and to earn his family a great deal of honor.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  He also, however, had and air of superiority about him. His attitude toward women, as evident in the treatment of his daughter, reflects his old-fashioned ways and his inability, or his lack of desire, to move on into the future. Throughout Miss Emily’s childhood, her father believed that â€Å"none of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily.† Mr. Grierson did not allow his grown daughter, even at the age of thirty, to make her own decisions. Moreover, he did not feel it was her place to act on her own behalf. Miss Emily willingly accepted her role in the household. The name and the attitudes that Mr. Grierson passed on to his daughter Emily symbolically opposed the change that was going on around them.   Ã‚  Ã‚   ...

Monday, January 13, 2020

Jun Assignment Mpa for 2012-13

IGNOU M. A in Public Administration Solved Assignment Dec 2012 Presented by http://www. IGNOU4Ublog. com TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT (TMA) Course Code: MPA-011 Assignment Code: Asst/TMA/2012-2013 Marks: 100 This assignment consists of Sections I & II. There are five questions in each section. You have to answer a total of five questions in about 400 words each. It is necessary to attempt at least two questions from each section. Each question carries 20 marks. Section-1 consists of questions from Units 1 to 10 and Section-II consists of questions from Units 11 to 21. Section – I . Examine the views of F. W Riggs on Society-Administration relationship. Solution: Coming soon†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. ———————————————————————————————– 2. ‘State’s role needs to be examined in the context of its Liberal and Marxist perspectives’. Discuss. Solution: The liberal conception of the state is of a limited organization that represents popular will. The state plays a minimal role in the directing of society and economic affairs, but can play a significant supporting role in modern liberal (social liberal) theories.Classical Liberals favor a minimal state that only provides for basic services such as defense, enforcing contracts and protecting property rights. Social liberals accept more roles for the state, primarily in the economic sphere, such as regulation of capitalism in order to protect consumers and workers, welfare programs to help the poor and disadvantaged in society and public services that benefit everyone. To liberals, the state plays a supporting role in society, and is usually left to operate in the political and social spheres.Marxists conceive of the state as an institution of capitalism that can be transformed to benefit the working class, as the state is the only institution that is capable of organizing and managing the economy on a large scale. The state would be radicalized in that the workers and people would control it through direct democracy or council democracy. The state becomes an integral part of the economy in that it owns the means of production in the phase of socialism.Marxists see the state as becoming unnecessary when the productive forces develop and authority on the state level is no longer required, leading to the disappearance of the state and social class. This society is called communism, where the means of production is owned communally but operated and managed by cooperatives. Socialism is an economic system whereby either the state or worker cooperatives own and control the means of production, strategic resources and major industry.The principle of socialism is to organize the economy in a rational manner that avoids the pitfalls of capitalism and the free market through plan ned or state directed economic systems. Socialism can also utilize the market mechanism to distribute goods and services in the form of market socialism, while the state or public retains ownership of major economic institutions. The revenue generated by the state economy would be used to finance government programs, potentially eliminating the need for taxation.A private sector for non-heavy industry can exist in a socialist system, but the state, public or cooperative sector would play the dominant role in the economy. To socialists, the state is a part of the economy and the state plays a dominant role in structuring economic and political affairs. ———————————————————————————————– 3. Explain the Neo-liberal Perspective of State. Solution: Neoliberalism is a co ntemporary political movement advocating economic liberalizations, free trade and open markets. Neoliberalism supports the privatization of nationalized industries, eregulation, and enhancing the role of the private sector in modern society. It is commonly informed by neoclassical or Austrian economics. The term neoliberal today is often used as a general condemnation of economic liberalization policies and advocates. Neoliberalism shares many concepts with mainstream schools of economic thought. The term â€Å"neoliberalism† was coined in 1938 by the German scholar Alexander Rustow at the Colloque Walter Lippmann. The colloquium defined the concept of neoliberalism as â€Å"the priority of the price mechanism, the free enterprise, the system of competition and a strong and impartial state. To be â€Å"neoliberal† meant that â€Å"laissez-faire† liberalism is not enough and that – in the name of liberalism – a modern economic policy is required. A fter the colloquium â€Å"neoliberalism† became a label for several academical approaches such as the Freiburg school, the Austrian School or the Chicago school of economics. During the military rule under Augusto Pinochet in Chile opposition scholars took up the expression again without a specific reference to any theoretical revision of liberalism.Rather, it described a set of political and economic reforms being implemented in Chile and imbued the term with pejorative connotations. In the last two decades, according to the Boas and Gans-Morse study of 148 journal articles, neoliberalism is almost never defined but used in several senses to describe ideology, economic theory, development theory, or economic reform policy. It has largely become a term of condemnation employed by critics of liberalizing economic tendencies. And it now suggests a â€Å"market fundamentalism† closer to the â€Å"paleoliberals† as opposed to the primary meaning.This leaves some con troversy as to the precise meaning of the term and its usefulness as a descriptor in the social sciences, especially as the number of different kinds of market economies have proliferated in recent years ———————————————————————————————– 4. ‘The nature of social participation is ever changing’.Elucidate Solution: Whether we live in the crowded bustle of an inner city or in a quieter, less populated rural area, most of us are part of the community in which we live. Social participation refers to people's social involvement and interaction with others. Activities such as volunteering, making donations, participating in sports, and recreational activities are all forms of social participation. While Canadians may differ in why, how, and how much they ge t involved, most would agree that social participation improves their own and the community's well-being[1].Measures of social participation include participation in political activities and participation in social activities. Measures of factors that influence social participation include social networks, sense of belonging, and level of trust. Highlights 54. 6% of Canadians – 58. 3% of men and 51. 7% of women – reported being involved in at least one political activity in 2002. Involvement in at least one social activity group, such as professional associations, or cultural, educational, and hobby organizations, was reported by 61% of Canadians in 2003. In 2003, the great majority of Canadians (93. %) reported having some close friends or family members. However, 6. 3% of Canadians reported having no close friend or family member. In 2003, the vast majority of Canadians had a â€Å"somewhat or very strong† sense of belonging to Canada (88%), to their province (81%), and to their community (70%). A little more than half of Canadians (56%) in 2003 believed that others could be trusted. The level of trust was highest among individuals aged 45 to 64 years old (59%) compared with other age categories. Footnotes There is no agreement on how to best define ‘community. For example, and the 2003 General Social Survey on Social Engagement (Statistics Canada, cat. no. 89-598-XIE) leaves the definition open. Generally, the term ‘community' refers to the people and institutions that are in proximity to our place of residence. However, it can also include a more global sense of community, where charitable donations to an international charity can benefit people of other countries. ———————————————————————————————– 5. Ans wer the following questions in 200 words each: ) Concept of ‘Hind Swaraj’ Solution:The concept of swaraj, or self-rule, was developed during the Indian freedom struggle. In his book Hind Swaraj (1909), Gandhi sought to clarify that the meaning behind swaraj was much more than simply â€Å"wanting [systems of] English rule without the Englishman; the tiger's nature but not the tiger. † The crux of his argument centered on the belief that the socio-spiritual underpinnings of British political, economic, bureaucratic, legal, military, and educational institutions were inherently unjust, exploitative and alienating.As Pinto explicates, â€Å"The principal theme of Hind Swaraj is the moral inadequacy of western civilization, especially its industrialism, as the model for free India. † Gandhi was particularly critical of the deeply embedded principles of ‘might is right' and ‘survival of the fittest'. On another level, the call for swaraj represents a genuine attempt to regain control of the ‘self' – our self-respect, self-responsibility, and capacities for self-realization – from institutions of dehumanization.As Gandhi states, â€Å"It is swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves. † The real goal of the freedom struggle was not only to secure political azadi (independence) from Britain, but rather to gain true swaraj (liberation and self-rule). Gandhi wanted all those who believed in swaraj: (1) to reject and wholly uproot the British raj (rule) from within themselves and their communities; and, (2) to regenerate new reference points, systems, and structures that enable individual and collective self-development.This regeneration was to grow from the strengths, perspectives, wisdom and experiences of people living in village India, rather than from cities in Britain, America, and even in India for that matter. Understanding the real ‘Self', and its relation to communities and society, is critical to the project of attaining swaraj. How is this relevant for us today? We feel that South Asia (along with the rest of the world) is experiencing a tremendous crisis, one overwhelming in its scale and pace of growth.While it is easy to get caught up in the symptoms of this crisis (the brutal violence, the enormous inequities, the extinction of cultures and languages, the degradation of the environment), it is equally, if not more, important to understand its roots. We must creatively analyze the content and the consequences of our current economic, political, social, and educational systems, without reverting to a romanticized past of so-called untouched or pristine traditions.From these critical reflections, we must generate new spaces, systems, and processes – based on moral and holistic visions of human potential and human progress – which can lead us out of the global self-destruction which engulfs us. Throughout it all, we must consider and negotiate our own role s, while asking ourselves how we are either working for solutions or contributing to making the crisis worse. Thus, today, we recognize Gandhi's concept of swaraj integral to three parallel action-reflection agendas for the 21st century: ———————————————————————————————– ) Citizen’s Charter Solution: Citizen’s Charter is a document which represents a systematic effort to focus on the commitment of the Organization towards its Citizens in respects of Standard of Services, Information, Choice and Consultation, Non-discrimination and Accessibility, Grievance Redressal, courtesy and value for money. This also includes expectations of the Organization from the Citizen for fulfilling the commitment of the Organization.The Citizen's Charter was a British p olitical initiative launched by the then Prime Minister, John Major, on 22 July 1991, less than a year into his premiership. [1] It aimed to improve public services in the UK by: Making administration accountable and citizen friendly. Ensuring transparency and the right to information. Taking measures to cleanse and motivate civil service. Adopting a stakeholder approach. Saving time of both executant and the clientele One part of the initiative was the granting of â€Å"Charter Marks† to those public bodies meeting defined standards. ———————————————————————————————- Section – II 6. Examine the role of Bureaucracy in policy monitoring and analysis. Solution: Bureaucrats put government policy into practice, and therefore the federal bureaucracy has a large impact on policymaking. In order to get their policies passed, the president and Congress must work with the bureaucracy. Controlling the bureaucracy can be difficult for the following reasons:Size: The president cannot monitor everyone or even every group within the bureaucracy, so much of what bureaucrats do goes unmonitored. Expertise of bureaucrats: The people who administer policy often know much more about those issues than the president or members of Congress. This expertise gives the bureaucrats power. Civil service laws: Firing bureaucrats, even for incompetence, is very difficult. Clientele groups: Many federal agencies provide services to thousands of people, and those people sometimes rally to defend the agency.Policy implementation: When Congress creates a new program, it does not establish all the details on how the policy will be implemented. Instead, Congress passes enabling legislation, which grants power to an agency to work out the specifics. Although the agency must stay within some bounds, it has a great deal of latitude in determining how to carry out the wishes of Congress. Power of Persuasion Presidential scholar Richard Neustadt has argued that the president’s primary power is that of persuasion.The president must lobby or persuade bureaucrats. But trying to convince members of the bureaucracy that their goals fit with the president’s goals is a time-consuming and often frustrating process. For this reason, many presidents have seen the bureaucracy as an obstacle to getting their agendas approved. Rule-making The federal bureaucracy makes rules that affect how programs operate, and these rules must be obeyed, just as if they were laws. The rule-making process for government agencies occurs in stages.After Congress passes new regulatory laws, the agency charged with implementing the law proposes a series of rules, which are published in the Federal Register. Interested parties can comment on the rules, either at public he arings or by submitting documents to the agency. After the agency publishes the final regulations, it must wait sixty days before enforcing those rules. During that time, Congress can review and change the rules if it desires. If Congress makes no changes, the rules go into effect at the end of sixty days. Federal regulations affect many groups of people, who have often challenged those regulations in court.Because litigation is a slow and expensive way to change regulations, Congress passed the Negotiated Rulemaking Act of 1990 to limit the need for litigation by opening the rulemaking process to those affected by it. The act encouraged federal agencies to engage in negotiated rule-making. If an agency agrees to the proposed regulations, for example, it publishes the proposals in the Federal Register and then participates in a negotiating committee overseen by a third party. Agreements reached by the committee are then open to the normal public review process.Parties to negotiated rule-making agree not to sue over the rules. ———————————————————————————————– 7. Write a note on the nature and characteristics of good governance. Solution: Good governance has 8 major characteristics. It is participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. It assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making.It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society. Participation Participation by both men and women is a key cornerstone of good governance. Participation could be either direct or through legitimate intermediate institutions or representatives. It is important to point out that representative democracy does not necessarily mean that the concerns of the most vulnerable in society would be taken into consideration in decision making. Participation needs to be informed and organized. This means freedom of association and expression on the one hand and an organized civil society on the other hand.Rule of law Good governance requires fair legal frameworks that are enforced impartially. It also requires full protection of human rights, particularly those of minorities. Impartial enforcement of laws requires an independent judiciary and an impartial and incorruptible police force. Transparency Transparency means that decisions taken and their enforcement are done in a manner that follows rules and regulations. It also means that information is freely available and directly accessible to those who will be affected by such decisions and their enforcement.It also means that enough information is provided and that it is provided in easily understandable forms and media. Responsiveness Good governance requires that institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders within a reasonable timeframe. Consensus oriented There are several actors and as many view points in a given society. Good governance requires mediation of the different interests in society to reach a broad consensus in society on what is in the best interest of the whole community and how this can be achieved.It also requires a broad and long-term perspective on what is needed for sustainable human development and how to achieve the goals of such development. This can only result from an understanding of the historical, cultural and social contexts of a given society or community. ——————————————————————————————â€⠀Ã¢â‚¬â€œ 8. Explain the meaning of Ethics, underlying its ‘foci’ and ‘loci’. Solution: Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior.Major areas of study in ethics may be divided into 3 operational areas: Meta-ethics came to the fore with G. E. Moore's Principia Ethica from 1903. In it he first wrote about what he called the naturalistic fallacy. Moore was seen to reject naturalism in ethics, in his Open Question Argument. This made thinkers look again at second order questions about ethics. Earlier, the Scottish philosopher David Hume had put forward a similar view on the difference between facts and values.Studies of how we know in ethics divide into cognitivism and non-cognitivism; this is similar to the contrast between descriptivists and non-descriptivists. Non-cognitivism is the claim that when we judge something as right or wrong, this is neither true nor false. We may for example be only expressing our emotional feelings about these things. [2] Cognitivism can then be seen as the claim that when we talk about right and wrong, we are talking about matters of fact. Normative ethics Traditionally, normative ethics (also known as moral theory) was the study of what makes actions right and wrong.These theories offered an overarching moral principle one could appeal to in resolving difficult moral decisions. At the turn of the 20th century, moral theories became more complex and are no longer concerned solely with rightness and wrongness, but are interested in many different kinds of moral status. During the middle of the century, the study of normative ethics declined as meta-ethics grew in prominence. This focus on meta-ethics was in part caused by an intense linguistic focus in analytic philosophy and by the popularity of logical positivism.Virtue ethics Virtue ethics describes the character of a moral agent as a dr iving force for ethical behavior, and is used to describe the ethics of Socrates, Aristotle, and other early Greek philosophers. Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC) was one of the first Greek philosophers to encourage both scholars and the common citizen to turn their attention from the outside world to the condition of humankind. In this view, knowledge having a bearing on human life was placed highest, all other knowledge being secondary.Self-knowledge was considered necessary for success and inherently an essential good. A self-aware person will act completely within his capabilities to his pinnacle, while an ignorant person will flounder and encounter difficulty. ———————————————————————————————– 9. ‘The solution to governance challenges lies in civil soci ety movements’. Discuss. Solution: Until recently, the study of development process until recently has centered largely on the triangle of states-markets-international institutions.For the last decade, mainstream development discourse has adopted the notion of ‘civil society' as simultaneously the site of ‘citizens' collective action' as well as a set of actors to be incorporated in the planning, implementation and evaluation of development projects. This notion of ‘civil society' has tended to focus exclusively on NGOs. This course provides a more political understanding of ‘civil society' by examining social movements in relation to civil society and to the development project itself. It begins by current theories of ‘civil society' and ‘new social movements'.It then assesses the impact of nationalist and socialist movements on shaping the development agenda of nineteenth-century European and late-colonial states, and how social movements from the 1950s-1980s interacted with national governments in blocking, changing or advancing the development agendas of states (e. g. , Gandhian movements in India, the housing rights movements in urban Latin America, and the movements against minority rule in Southern Africa). The course focuses on contexts (e. g. democratisation, globalisation, etc. ), sectors (e. g. environment, agriculture), spaces (e. g. ural, urban) and agents (e. g. women). Subsequently, the course addresses the issue of ‘global civil society': issues of ‘globalisation' and transnational networks of solidarity created in response to it, for example, the movements against ‘sweatshop labour', the Zapatista movement in Mexico, and movements against transnational companies and institutions of global governance (WTO, World Bank, IMF etc. ). ———————————————————†”———————————– 10. Answer the following questions in 200 words each: a) Concept of New Public ManagementSolution: New public management (NPM) denotes broadly the government policies, since the 1980s, that aimed to modernise and render more effective the public sector. The basic hypothesis holds that market oriented management of the public sector will lead to greater cost-efficiency for governments, without having negative side-effects on other objectives and considerationsSome modern authors define NPM as a combination of splitting large bureaucracies into smaller, more fragmented ones, competition between different public agencies, and between public agencies and private firms and incentivization on more economic lines. 2] Defined in this way, NPM has been a significant driver in public management policy around the world, from the early 1980s to at least the early 2000s. NPM, compared to other pub lic management theories, is oriented towards outcomes and efficiency, through better management of public budget. [3] It is considered to be achieved by applying competition, as it is known in the private sector, to organizations in the public sector, emphasizing economic and leadership principles.New public management addresses beneficiaries of public services much like customers, and conversely citizens as shareholders. In 2007, the European Commission produced a white book on governance issues whose objective was to propose a new kind of â€Å"relationship between the state and the citizens,† reform governance, improve public management and render decision-making â€Å"more flexibleSome authors say NPM has peaked and is now in decline ——————————————————————————————à ¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€œ ) Business Process Engineering Solution: Business process re-engineering is a business management strategy, originally pioneered in the early 1990s, focusing on the analysis and design of workflows and processes within an organization. BPR aimed to help organizations fundamentally rethink how they do their work in order to dramatically improve customer service, cut operational costs, and become world-class competitors. 1] In the mid-1990s, as many as 60% of the Fortune 500 companies claimed to either have initiated reengineering efforts, or to have plans to do so. BPR seeks to help companies radically restructure their organizations by focusing on the ground-up design of their business processes. According to Davenport (1990) a business process is a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome. Re-engineering emphasized a holistic focus on business objectives and how processes related to them, encouraging full-scale recreation of pr ocesses rather than iterative optimization of subprocesses.

Sunday, January 5, 2020

How to Measure Volume and Density

Archimedes needed to determine if a goldsmith had embezzled gold during the manufacture of the royal crown for King Hiero I of Syracuse. How would you find out if a crown was made of gold or a cheaper alloy? How would you know if the crown was a base metal with a golden exterior? Gold is a very heavy metal (even heavier than lead, though lead has a higher atomic weight), so one way to test the crown would be to determine its density (mass per unit volume). Archimedes could use scales to find the mass of the crown, but how would he find the volume? Melting the crown down to cast it into a cube or sphere would make for an easy calculation and an angry king. After pondering the problem, it occurred to Archimedes that he could calculate volume based on how much water the crown displaced. Technically, he didnt even need to weigh the crown, if he had access to the royal treasury since he could just compare the displacement of water by the crown with the displacement of water by an equal volume of the gold the smith was given to use. According to the story, once Archimedes hit upon the solution to his problem, he burst outside, naked, and ran through the streets yelling, Eureka! Eureka! Some of this might be fiction, but Archimedes idea to calculate the volume of an object and its density  if you know the objects weight was fact. For a small object, in the lab, the easiest way to do this is to partly fill a graduated cylinder large enough to contain the object with water (or some liquid in which the object wont dissolve). Record the volume of water. Add the object, being careful to eliminate air bubbles. Record the new volume. The volume of the object is the initial volume in the cylinder subtracted from the final volume. If you have the objects mass, its density is the mass divided by its volume. How to Do It at Home Most people dont keep graduated cylinders in their homes. The closest thing to it would be a liquid measuring cup, which will accomplish the same task, but with a lot less accuracy. There is another way to calculate volume using Archimedes displacement method. Partially fill a box or cylindrical container with liquid.Mark the initial liquid level on the outside of the container with a marker.Add the object.Mark the new liquid level.Measure the distance between the original and final liquid levels. If the container was rectangular or square, the volume of the object is the inside width of the container multiplied by the inside length of the container (both numbers are the same in a cube), multiplied by the distance the liquid was displaced (length x width x height volume). For a cylinder, measure the diameter of the circle inside the container. The radius of the cylinder is 1/2 the diameter. The volume of your object is pi (Ï€, ~3.14) multiplied by the square of the radius multiplied by the difference in liquid levels (Ï€r2h).