doug (08/09/82)
a physics 101 question: Archimedes' Principle
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A student is sitting in a canoe in a fixed volume of water, like
a swimming pool:
O
--------\ ooooo |--- /--------------water level--|
\oooooo\/\ / |
\______________/ |
|
|
_______________________________________________________|
In his canoe he has a bunch of heavy rocks. He takes the rocks and, one
by one, drops them into the water and watches them quickly fall to the
bottom.
After all the rocks have been dropped in, has the water level (as measured
on the wall) gone up, gone down or stayed the same?
* I'll post the answer with a spoiler warning tomorrow, so we
don't have to clutter up the net with duplicate responses, unless
someone has an additional comment or follow-up to make.