Back when I was 106, and my only friend was one goldfish

[venta]

I just regaled ChrisC with a story about the lowly position of empiricists at the French court in the 17th or 18th century. The story goes like this:

All the finest minds of the era were busy debating why a bowl of water should become lighter when you put a goldfish into it. The debate was heated and wide-ranging. Until someone came along and said, er, actually, I don't think a bowl of water actually does get lighter when you add a goldfish. Look, I have here a bowl of water, a fish, and some scales.

His comments were immediately discounted because, well, who would be so low as to actually try the thing?

Which is a lovely story. But when I went a a-googling to try and find out whether I really meant the French court, and which century, and whether the man with the scales was someone whom history remembers...

Well, I can't find any evidence that I haven't just made the whole thing up. I'm sure I remember being told it in school. Has anyone else ever heard this story? If you heard it from me, it probably doesn't count.

Comments

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm, yes. I don't think I went to school with a Khalid :) However, their story sounds like it's probably the same one I'm thinking... though it's sadly lacking in verifiable fact. Damn, why can't I add [citation wanted] to all bits of the web?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

You can! – there's stacks of tools that let you do that. Admittedly your comments will only be seen by other people who use the same tool, and I don't think any yet has a critical mass of users. Even Google's one didn't get much traction, and they eventually withdrew it.