BATHTUB SCIENCE 17 MARCH 2004 (17 march 2004)
Archimedes, an ancient Greek who lived some 2250 years ago, is reputed to have rushed naked into the street when he saw the water level rise by the immersion of his body and he realized that his apparent weight decreased by the weight of the water that was displaced.
The other day, while I was in the bathtub, I was playing with an empty shampoo bottle which was conical in shape, more or less like this:
I held the bottle close to the bottom of the tub and let it go. Since the bottle was empty, it rose and jumped up above the surface of the water. I repeated the experiment, but this time I held the bottle upside down (case B).
Now I have simple question.
Would the empty shampoo bottle jump higher in case A or in case B? Or would it jump to the same height in either case?
I have performed the experiment several times, so I have an empirical answer.
In my next weblog I'll answer this question and I'll try to give some physical background to this problem.
