Eureka (or 'Heureka') is a famous exclamation attributed to Archimedes. He reportedly uttered the word when he suddenly understood buoyancy, subsequently leaping out of his bathtub and running through the streets of Syracuse naked. "Heureka" is a form of the Greek verb heuriskein, meaning "to find"; it means "I have found it!" As a result, "Eureka" has become an interjection which is used to celebrate a discovery (whether a major scientific truth or something as banal as the finding of a lost item).

The expression is quoted as the state motto of California, referring to the momentous discovery of gold near Sutter's Mill in 1848.

Place names

Several places are named for the expression:

• Eureka, California and Yreka, California
• Eureka, Kansas
• Eureka, Missouri
• Eureka, Montana
• Eureka, South Dakota
• Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
• Eureka, Nunavut in Canada.
• Eureka, Victoria in Australia

More than one of these places are or were involved in the gold mining industry, with the phrase 'I found it' having an obvious connection.

Other meanings

• The name of an asteroid co-orbital with Mars, 5261 Eureka (see also 3753 Cruithne)
• The name of the European Union's research and development organization; see EUREKA.
• The 1854 Australian miners' revolt at the Eureka Stockade.
• Eureka is the name of an online game developed by Free Fall Associates.
• Eureka is an 1848 prose poem by Edgar Allan Poe
• Eureka is an 1890 built steam ferryboat now preserved in San Francisco, California.
• The Eureka Tower is a skyscraper in the city of Melbourne, Australia
• Eureka Valley is also the name of two places in California: one a neighborhood in San Francisco and the other a valley in the eastern part of the state.
• The Eureka Maru is a fictional starship in the television series Andromeda.