robison@uiucdcsb.UUCP (12/11/84)
But a ship can float in a small amount of water by Archimedes principle.
It's not the water around the ship that counts, but the displaced water -
which need not exist. In the example, the 100,000 ton reservoirs may be
removed with no effect:
\~~~| 100,000 tons |~~~/
\~~\ /~~/
\~~\ /~~/
\~~\ SHIP /~~/
\~~\ /~~/
\~~\ /~~/
\~~\ /~~/
\~~\ /~~/
\~~\--/~~/
\~~~~~~/
\----/
(The pressure on the container walls is about 1 atmosphere for every 10 meters
of depth, the same as if the ship was not there!)
This trick was used by Michelson and Morly to float their interferometer
table (ACK! back to FTL!) on a small amount of mercury. If I remember
correctly, the geometry was like this:
+----------------------+
| Table |
| +----------+ |
|m| |m| |m| |m|
|m+-----+m| |m+-----+m|
|mmmmmmmmm| |mmmmmmmmm|
|---------| |---------|
The table is set in a trough of mercury (m's). The weight of the mercury in
the trough is far less than the weight of the table. It is the displaced
mercury (which isn't there) that holds the table up!
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