thomas (08/10/82)
Here's a good paradox: Imagine a lock (of the sort in the Panama Canal) with a ship in it which almost fills the lock. (Cross Section Picture) | | | | |--| |--| <--- Water level | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-------------+ | +-------------------+ Clearly we can make the fit tight enough to leave an arbitrarily small amount of water in the lock if the ship were removed. So, the question is: If the ship must displace an amount of water equal to its weight in order to float, but the amount of water in the lock is much less than the weight of the ship, WHY is it floating???? (Don't flame at me, I know the answer, but it is an interesting question, and points out that one can not take the usual wording of such "laws" literally.) =Spencer (harpo!utah-cs!thomas, thomas@utah-20)