Archimedes Absolute Genius with Dick and Dom

This is Absolute Genius.

'So sit down, buckle up and get ready for take off!'

'Each show, we'll introduce you to a different genius.'

'An amazing person, who had a genius idea, which shaped the world.'

'And they will inspire us

'to come up with our own genius idea at the end of each show.'

'But will it be any good?'

'Will it be any good?! It'll be...Absolute Genius!'

'And on today's show we're going to get wet...'

'Very wet.'

'As we explore the murky depths of an absolute genius!'

You know what this means? This means war.

Three, two, one... Liftoff.

Ah. You join me in the bath where today we go inside

one of the greatest scientific minds this world has EVER seen.

He was famous for coming up with a genius idea whilst in the bath.

Not only was he a fantastic mathematician and engineer,

but his genius machines are still being used today.

He did all of this over 2,000 years ago.

Why are you in my bath?

I, I don't know.

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you... Archimedes!

Why are you in his bath, Dom?

I don't know...

Inspired by HIS genius ideas, we're going to be coming up

with our OWN genius idea later on in the show.

'We bring one of his maddest and baddest inventions to life

'when we make a deadly heat ray.'

-Ah!

-Oh!

-Come on!

But first, let's find out a little bit more

about the great man himself.

Archimedes was a Greek guy with a great beard,

born a ridiculously long time ago, around the year 287 BC.

That's why he's called an ANCIENT Greek.

Who are you calling ancient?

Sorry, Archie.

Ooh, numbers and algebra!

Archimedes was a genius when it came to maths, physics and engineering.

He was so clever he was hired to solve tricky problems

by the King of Syracuse.

He came up with brilliant theories about why objects float.

AND he built amazing machines

to help defend the king's city against attack!

Ow! Stop it!

'We're on a mission to find a really genius invention of Archimedes'

'that we can bring to life at the end of the show.

'He liked nothing better than coming up with those inventions

'whilst having a good, long soak.'

To really FEEL the inspiration of this great man Archimedes,

we've come to one of his favourite places.

You may know the story of Archimedes being in a bath

and coming up with the idea that helped him solve a problem

that had been puzzling him for ages.

He was so excited about solving this problem

that he jumped out of the bath - naked -

ran down the street - nudey - shouting out, "Eureka, Eureka!"

In Greek that means, "I've got it! I've got it!"

But what exactly had he got?

I...I don't know.

If only Fran, our genius scientist, was here to tell us more.

'This is Fran. She just loves experimenting...'

Aah!

'..to help explain the ideas of our geniuses.

'She's sure to pop up just when you really need her.'

-Ah.

-What are you two doing in my bath?

BOTH: We don't know.

I'm not going to talk to you here! Get dressed and come with me.

I am dressed.

Archimedes was working on a problem that he'd been set by the king,

cos the king didn't know if his crown was made of pure gold or not.

So it was at that moment in the bath that Archimedes solved the problem?

-Yeah.

-But why did he get so excited about that?

His solution didn't just allow him to work out

whether crowns were made of pure gold or not,

it allowed him to figure out why things float and why things sink.

And that is much more useful. Come with me.

-Sweeties!

-Sweet shop!

So, boys, choose anything you want...

We can have any bag of sweets we want,

so long as it weighs exactly 100 grams.

-100 grams of Teeth, please.

-Comin'.

-DOM MUMBLES

-Which ones?

-Down the end!

100 grams of Aniseed Balls, please.

Aniseed Balls, Aniseed Balls.

No, Sports Mix! No, they're the same as Midget Gems.

I want some Mini Marshmallows. Lots of them.

-Can I try a Rainbow Pencil, please? Down the bottom.

-OK, I'm on it.

-Mm, that's good. No, I don't like them.

-No.

Wait, stop stuffing your faces!

We're not complaining or anything, Fran,

but what's all this got to do with Archimedes?

Archimedes, he didn't spend his time in sweet shops,

but he spent his time studying materials.

And he knew that different materials could weigh the same,

but you get different amounts of material for that same weight.

So what you're saying is, you get some light and fluffy marshmallows,

-you get loads of them for 100 grams?

-Yeah.

-Ah, but only a few Aniseed Balls?

-Exactly!

And Archimedes figured out that the more of a material

you get for that certain weight, the more likely it is to float.

Mmm. So these, cos there's more of them,

are more likely to float than these few Aniseed Balls?

Yeah. Exactly. If you don't believe me, let's try it.

Ah, experiment time. Go on, then.

-Ah!

-Sinkage!

-Sinkage, yes.

-Sinkage, you see that? So?

-Get them in.

-There you are... Floating!

-It's eureka!

-Eureka! There your are. But hang on a minute.

Metal sinks just like the Aniseed Balls, doesn't it?

You don't get much for its weight.

But how come a metal boat floats? There's loads of metal.

That's a good question, that.

But to explain it, we're going to need loads more water than this.

Oh.

I think this should just about do it.

It's a very nice pool,

but you were supposed to be showing us how metal boats float?

The thing is, we know that if you've got two objects of the same weight,

then the bigger one is more likely to float.

So like with the Aniseed Balls and the marshmallows?

-Ah...

-Mallows.

-Yep.

That's why metal boats float.

If you had just a lump of metal, like iron,

all crushed together, then it wouldn't float.

But if you make that metal bigger, by making it into a boat shape,

you've got the same weight, but a bigger object...

And then it's going to float!

Exactly, and it's the same with people too.

You two, get your trunks on!

-And...

-Yeah?

-..Jump in!

-Right!

Yeah... See what you mean.

Just like the Aniseed Balls, we don't float in water.

But you can make a person more likely to float, more buoyant,

by adding armbands and rubber rings to them,

cos that makes them bigger without changing their weight much.

BOTH: Oh, like this!

So basically, what Archimedes is saying is

now we're in essence bigger, we're more likely to float?

-That's exactly what I'm saying.

-That's very clever. No, no!

Now with armbands and rubber rings making us bigger, we float.

BOTH: Eureka!

I'll say!

Archimedes' discoveries about how well different objects float

was crucial.

Until Archimedes came along more than 2,000 years ago,

building a ship that would float well

was always a trial and error operation.

While we go looking for some more Archimedes brilliance,

here's a selection of Greek geniuses fond of facial hair.

It's The Genius Top Five.

Five - the astronomer Aristarchus who worked out that the Earth

revolves around the sun.

Four - Eratosthenes.

He invented geography

and drew the very first map of the world.

Come on, dear, let's go.

Three - our mate Stavros. He makes brilliant kebabs.

Oh, yes, his tzatziki is to die for!

# La la, la la. #

Two - the mathematician Euclid.

He's the reason you do geometry at school. Thanks, Euclid!

Ah-ha!

And one - Plato.

A brilliant philosopher who once said...

Speaking of fools...

'So far, we've found out that Archimedes had a brilliant idea

'whilst having a bath

'and that he worked out why some objects float better than others.'

'Coming up...

'We see how he turned his genius to weapons of war.'

I presume this is the Archimedes' claw?

Turn on the sun.

-Ah!

-Oh!

-Come on!

-Faster!

Quack!

Now, here's another one of Archimedes' genius inventions.

It's called the Archimedes' screw.

It looks like a giant corkscrew,

but it's actually the world's first water pump.

This is how it works - when you turn the wheel... Turn the wheel!

When you turn the wheel, it scoops up water here in the bottom...

it brings it up, up, up, up, all the way to the top

and then eventually, it deposits it into this trough here.

-Genius, eh?

-Yeah, 2,300 years ago before pumps, taps,

and hoses were invented, farmers that planted their crops

near a river could now transport the water uphill.

Before then, it was always transferred by hand,

or by container, or a very, very tired donkey.

-EEY-ORE!

-Exactly. The Archimedes' screw -

a simple yet brilliant invention that's still being used today

and we are going to see one!

No! Come on. Are we? Exciting, isn't it?

Hang on, where are we going?

I've got a feeling... You know, Archimedes, Greece.

It's going to be somewhere like Athens? No? Err... Corfu?

-No.

-Where?

Stockton-on-Tees.

I LOVE Stockton-on-Tees!

This is Stockton-on-Tees. Home to the Tees River.

And this genius white water rafting and canoeing centre.

-Yeah-heh!

-Looks good that, doesn't it?

Isn't it mad to think that this is all thanks to Archimedes?

-Mm. Come on, then, let's have a go!

-All right. Look!

'Just before we get wet, though...'

'..we're going meet ace canoeist and genius expert Andy Laird.

'He designed this white water centre

'and took his inspiration from a great Archimedes invention.'

What's the secret behind this white water rafting course?

We take the water from the River Tees, divert it down this channel.

There's a few obstacles in there.

Goes round, makes some rapids, gets down to the bottom pool

and we lift it back to the top and it goes round again.

-The water goes from down there, uphill, and then ends up here?

-Right.

So this is where Archimedes comes into it?

-You're right. Let's go and have a look.

-Ah!

Whoa-ho! Look at the size of that!

Bit bigger than that one in the museum.

Andy, these are absolutely HUGE. What are they all about?

We've got four massive Archimedean screws here.

We lift the water from the bottom, right back to the top.

At the flick of a switch we can have instant white water, 24 hours a day.

-Brilliant.

-How heavy are they?

These things weigh about 30 tons each, about ten metres long.

-They're seriously big bits of kit.

-Yeah.

In fact, each one of these enormous Archimedes' screws

is twice as tall as a giraffe and as heavy as six African elephants.

And the water power they generate is about to give us

a white-knuckle white water ride.

-Here we go! Holdin' on!

-Aargh!

Put it down.

-Down.

-Wet!

-Oh, it's wet!

-Wet!

-Wet! Right...

-Aah!

-Oh!

Wet!

Well, that was quite a drop. But look what's coming up...

THEY SHOUT

Well, that went, em, swimmingly...

It's fast. And it was freezing. Best theme-park ride you've ever been on.

Very exhilarating.

-He's a bit cold!

-Oh-ho!

This course hasn't beaten us yet, though...

This one's for you, Archimedes!

We've made it! Yes!

-That was absolutely brilliant!

-Thank you, Archimedes!

You bearded beauty!

Delighted to be of service.

So thanks to the Archimedes' screw we had the world's first water pump

and today we can go white water rafting in Stockton-on-Tees.

'Yes, Archimedes came up with lots of clever ideas,

'but there were some ancient Greeks whose inventions were, um,

'not quite so brilliant.'

It's The Not So Genius Idea.

Daedalus was a mythical ancient Greek inventor

who wanted to fly away from the Island of Crete.

He made wings out of feathers for himself and his son Icarus

and stuck them on to their arms with wax.

They took off, but Icarus apparently flew so high

-that he got too close to the sun.

-What a lovely view!

-The wax melted, he lost his wings...

-Aah!

-..And fell into the sea.

That'll learn me!

Never underestimate the power of the sun.

'Coming up... Things are about to get hot and dangerous.'

-Ah!

-Oh!

-Come on!

There she goes.

'We're trying to find an invention by the great Archimedes

'that WE can recreate.

'So why are we driving in the fog along a farm track

'somewhere in a remote corner of Shropshire?'

'Well, we're looking for the home of someone who can tell us

'more about Archimedes' inventions.'

I think we're lost.

No, I think we're on the right road.

No, the milometer says we've gone at least two miles

since we turned off that main road earlier.

Yeah, which means we must nearly be here. And you know the milometer?

That's another spin-off of one of Archimedes' great creations.

Yeah, I knew that. But his was actually called the odometer.

-Odometer?

-Hmm.

-Oh.

Good knowledge, Dick.

Yes, Archimedes' odometer was a cart with gears that measured

the distance it travelled.

Why have we stopped?

-I think we've run out of fuel.

-Oh, great!

You're so busy looking at your milometer,

that we've gone and run out of fuel. Brilliant(!)

Well, there's only one thing for it, isn't there?

'We're on our way to the home of genius helper Ivan Williams...

'If we can find it in this fog!'

'Ivan is fascinated by the clever engineering ideas

'that people from the Middle Ages and ancient world came up with.

'Especially their weapons and war machines.'

'At the moment he's working on his own design

'of one of Archimedes' most brilliant inventions.'

Archimedes was famous for creating several weapons that were

used to defend the city of Syracuse in Sicily against the Romans.

Yes, the Romans had started to lord it up in the Mediterranean.

But they hadn't reckoned upon Archimedes.

So we've come here to find out more about one of his inventions

that held the Roman Empire back. It's the Archimedes' claw!

Yes, it was absolutely deadly.

'Now, our genius helper Ivan has his own theory about

'just what Archimedes' claw was.'

So, Ivan, tell us about Archimedes' claw.

Rather than explain, I've made a model if you want to see it.

Under your magic black cloth?

-What do you think's under there?

-I'll help you.

One, two, three.

-Reveal!

-He's made a fortress!

And I presume this is the Archimedes' claw?

That's it. Big claw. Under the water. Hidden.

-It must have been massive.

-To sink a boat it's got to be really big.

-Ready?

-Hang on, hang on.

-Yes.

-Come on. Come on, come on. Ready?

Aah! Hello, sailor!

Got him!

What we've got is an enormous weight on the bottom.

The idea would be when the iron came up, the cords would be pulled tight.

That would smash through the bottom of the boat and grip it.

These would slam round the sides

and then they would have these in the towers -

big stone yo-yos, if you like.

-Yeah.

-And the higher the tower, the better.

And they would have been sat on a ramp.

They'd pull a chock away, it would roll forward,

-the weight would drop down and then go down...

-Yep, bang!

So it sunk in, gripped it, and sunk the ship.

So, the Roman boats would come along thinking they'll take the castle.

Before they knew it, a spike would pierce the boat from underneath,

the grabbers would come from either side.

A boulder would come down, smash the front of the boat

-and it would get dragged back down underneath?

-Yep.

-They weren't having a good day!

-Wow.

-You know what this means?

-No, what does this mean?!

-This means war!

-Yeah? War?

-War!

-Yeah?

-Hmm.

On one side - the Greek genius Archimedes, defender of Syracuse.

On the other - the Romans

with their mighty fleet!

Come on, then, you rascally Romans!

-We'll have you lot!

-Grrr!

-Yeah, you like feta cheese with olives!

-Yeah, but you like candles! Yeah!

-Here we go.

You cobbledy road-makers! Come on, then!

You've been clawed!

-Ready? It's going to get you now.

-DOM GROWLS

Grrr!

Just a little further... Got him, Dom!

Do you think that's how they did it back in those days?

-I think that's very similar.

-Yes, I do too.

That was amazing, wasn't it?

There's no doubt Archimedes was a really clever bloke,

but which one of his inventions can we have a go at making?

Cos I don't think we've found the right one yet.

Look, there's something else here.

"He set to catch the full rays of the sun at noon."

He's saying here that he set fire to boats, to Roman boats.

-With a special ray?

-Yeah.

-Fire.

-Hm.

-Boats.

-Hm.

-Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Stroke of genius!

2,000 years ago, Archimedes made a special heat ray

to defend his city walls against attack from Roman ships.

So how could we make our own deadly heat ray?

To find out more we've again called in the help

of our friendly scientist Fran.

Fran, Archimedes' heat ray sounds amazing. But what actually was it?

Well, he created his heat ray by using lots of mirrors

or one specially-shaped mirror to concentrate

the sun's heat into one place.

And that one place became so hot that you could set things on fire.

-Ah.

-Sounds like our type of thing, that, Fran.

It does, and I've actually got a specially-shaped mirror for you.

-Oh, yeah.

-You know where the sun is.

So we've got the sun, the mirror, what can we set on fire?

-I don't know.

-Ah! Just like Archimedes did.

-What?

-Let's set fire to a boat.

-Where are you going to find a big red boat?

-There, there.

-Oh.

Right, here's the plan.

Our genius idea is to create

our own version of Archimedes' heat ray.

By cleverly positioning mirrors, Archimedes caught the sun's rays

and concentrated them to make one amazingly-hot heat ray.

Our challenge is to use Fran's special mirrors

to send the red boat up in flames.

-Right, boat.

-Yes.

-Reflectors.

-Let's set it on fire.

'We, of course, know exactly what we're doing.'

Ouch!

'But don't try this at home.

'You could give yourself a pretty nasty burn.'

Look at that, we've got smoke.

What I want to do, I want to try and get it to go on fire...

to really prove that this works.

Luckily, it's a sunny day. But even with that it's slow work!

It's gone behind a cloud.

Remember, Archimedes had the hot Mediterranean sun.

-It's working, but it's not very practical in war, is it?

-No, true.

If you stop the Romans and go, "Excuse me a minute..."

"Just going to stand here for half an hour!"

"Get me wok and put it on your boat."

Are you struggling a bit there, boys?

No, Fran, we're not struggling! Well, maybe a little bit.

We got smoke, we got heat,

but it's just going to take ages to get this on fire.

Your problem is this boat isn't that easy to set on fire.

Another problem is the sun keeps on going behind the clouds.

What we need is an artificial sun that we can have on all the time.

-You've got one of them?

-Funny you should say that.

-She's got everything, ain't she?

-Ain't she just.

Oh! Mmm!

Right, in you come. Pop your safety specs on...

-because what we've got here is a heat lamp.

-Hey!

And we're going to use this along with this other mirror

as our artificial sun.

It might look like it's facing the wrong way, but what's happening

is the light and heat from this lamp is being reflected off this mirror

and then over to that mirror, which will act as Archimedes' heat ray.

Right, I've got it. So that's kind of like your sun.

And this is the reflector

which is going to be generating the heat, etc? Yes?

-Yeah.

-OK, this is great. That's how it starts off.

But we can't exactly set fire to a boat in here, can we?

Well, no, that's why I've got two other things to show you.

Firstly this stuff - fuse wire - and that we can ignite in here.

That will take the flame outside where we can light the boat

a safe distance from the house.

It's like that stuff on cartoons... HE HISSES

-Exactly. Like the stuff that's on Mission Impossible.

-Got it.

-And I've also got this stuff.

-What, cotton wool?

No, no, this is flash wool.

-You know, you remember me using this stuff as a magician.

-Oh.

-It bursts into flames and disappears.

-Like this.

-Go on, ready... Whup!

-That's my BBC pass!

All right, fair enough.

So, to sum it all up - we've got the flash cotton, the fuse wire,

our artificial sun to make our very own Archimedes' heat ray,

which will concentrate the heat to set fire to the boat.

But we're going to do all this by ourselves?

Yeah...that doesn't sound like the best idea now you say it out loud.

Wrong, Franny. Wrong. It sounds genius!

-Careful.

-I am being careful.

Be more careful.

-Right, that's on.

-Right.

Now this is going to go all the way to the boat.

'Now, don't copy this at home.

'We're doing this as a controlled experiment,

'but setting fire to stuff in your back garden is a no-no.'

Now for the flash cotton. Don't switch that on yet.

-Fearne Cotton?

-Leave it.

-Am I going to do it?

-Yeah.

-Are we going to blow up a boat?

-We are! In three, two, one.

Go!

Come on.

We've got to get exactly the right angle so it hits the sweet spot.

That's it.

Is it working?

-Ah!

-Oh!

-Come on!

-Right, it's off!

-Good boy!

This has got to go all the way outside now. All the way round.

We've probably got, what, about three minutes of this?

And then it's going to get to the boat and BOOM!

Faster. Come on!

There she goes.

Slowly and steadily, making its way along the fuse wire

to the boat down there. What's in the boat?

I'll tell you what's in the boat. A nice combustible bag of tricks.

You see, the thing about fuses is they can take a long time to burn.

HE WHISTLES

Yeah, a, um... A very long time.

In fact, we're best fading to black, actually. Let's do that.

Look! The fuse wire is nearly in the boat.

Tense moment.

'After all that hard work, this is finally it...

'Or is it?'

That boat's absolutely fine. Failed experiment.

No bangs, flashes. Whooshes.

-F-F-F-Fire!

-Hmm?

-F-F-F-Fire!

-It's on fire! Look at that, Archimedes!

-Hey!

Eureka! We've done it!

FIRECRACKERS POP AND CRACKLE

Well done, boys! You've got a lovely fire going there!

I love Archimedes, me. He worked out how things float...

He invented the screw to make water go uphill

to save the poor old donkey

and give us a brilliant white water ride.

Then there was the Archimedes' claw.

And the heat ray.

Hm, Archimedes... you are an absolute genius.

Dick and Dom, it's been an absolute pleasure.

Now, roll the credits.

Go on. Oh, forget it!

Hey!

Aah!

THEY LAUGH

BOGIES!

-Oh!

-Whoa!

It went right through me!

-Don't wobble it.

-I'm not doing anything!

-Stand still, then!

Oi, oi!

DICK GIGGLES

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd