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

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

men don't have scales, goldfish have scales

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

You probably need to google it in french.

[sammason.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard it until I heard it from you just now. But who am I to judge? This week I got chatting with somebody whose PhD was about a philosopher I hadn't heard of. 'He's a very famous French philosopher!' she said scornfully. I've since goofled him and he does sound interesting but hey, I did a PhD on one of the world's commonest parasites and I'm still explaining the word 'parasitology' to most people who ask about my PhD. As for people having heard of Toxo unless they know that pregnant women shouldn't change the cat litter, I wouldn't be so rude as to scorn anybody.

So I say, why should we have heard of the goldfish-weighing story? It's quite entertaining so thanks for telling us now.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

A google for goldfish weight water philosopher turns up this as the top hit (about halfway down), which suggests that person perhaps went to the same school as you, without adding any useful detail.

I'm pretty sure there weren't goldfish in Europe in the Middle Ages, though: your own C17-18 timetable is more plausible.

Overall it sounds a bit of a 'poisson rouge' to me though (ho ho).

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

Do I get a kudo for saying that I am 50 and that my wife hasn't left me?

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

...of course, while the story may not be true, as a demonstration of the general approach of scientists of that era it's bang-on.

Terrifying, really.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I’ve heard structurally similar stories but I don’t think they involved any fish.