The Pythagorean CupPythagoras is mostly known for his theorem and not his practical jokes. I want to change this. The Pythagorean cup is a simple device designed to make people look like idiots. It contains a thin pipe that runs from the bottom of the vessel up to the top of a central column. As the cup is filled the level of liquid within the pipe matches that of the surrounding cup according to Pascal’s principle of communicating vessels. If the cup is filled above the turn in the pipe then the liquid begins to pour out the bottom. Not only that but it creates a siphon in the process, which empties the entire contents of the cup right into the gluttonous drinker’s lap. Hilarious.

The Pythagorean Cup

Pythagoras is mostly known for his theorem and not his practical jokes. I want to change this. The Pythagorean cup is a simple device designed to make people look like idiots. It contains a thin pipe that runs from the bottom of the vessel up to the top of a central column. As the cup is filled the level of liquid within the pipe matches that of the surrounding cup according to Pascal’s principle of communicating vessels. If the cup is filled above the turn in the pipe then the liquid begins to pour out the bottom. Not only that but it creates a siphon in the process, which empties the entire contents of the cup right into the gluttonous drinker’s lap. Hilarious.

The Greeks’ Christian successors rejected the idea that the universe is governed by indifferent natural law… …and religion a far worthier study than the phenomena of nature. Indeed, in 1277 Bishop Tempier of Paris, acting on the instructions of Pope John XXI, published a list of 219 errors or heresies that were to be condemned. Among the heresies was the idea that nature follows laws, because this conflicts with God’s omnipotence. Interestingly, Pope John was killed by the effects of the law of gravity a few months later when the roof of his palace fell in on him.

- Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow in The Grand Design

Newton occupied the Lucasian chair at Cambridge that I now hold, though it wasn’t electrically operated in his time.

- Stephen Hawking