On Floating Bodies

On Floating Bodies () is a Greek-language work consisting of two books written by Archimedes of Syracuse (287 BC – c. 212 BC), one of the most important mathematicians, physicists, and engineers of antiquity. On Floating Bodies, which is thought to have been written around 250 BCE, survives only partly in Greek, the rest in medieval Latin translation from the Greek. It is the first known work on hydrostatics, of which Archimedes is recognized as the founder. The purpose of On Floating Bodies was to determine the positions that various solids will assume when floating in a fluid, according to their form and the variation in their specific gravities.