That dummy!  Why didn't he just sink the bulb into the liquid and measure
the displacement?

>  You might appreciate this story. Thomas Edison gave a new assistant a
> > project, to see what the new assistant could do. He assigned him the
> task
> > of
> > determining the volume of a light bulb. The new assistant worked for
> > several
> > hours with formulas and calculations to get the volume of the odd shape.
> > When done, Edison looked at the result, and said ....that's close but
> not
> > quite right.       He then drilled a hole in the side of the light bulb,
> > filled it with a liquid, then poured the liquid out into a calibrated
> > measuring beaker, where the volume was easy to determine.   It took just
> > minutes, and was considerably more accurate.   Think simple first.
>
>