this post was submitted on 23 May 2025
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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago (19 children)

Well... When you put one of those huge tankers in the water, it will move a LOT of water out of the way.

As long as the tanker weights less than the weight of all that water it displaced, it will float.

As you keep loading up the tanker with more cargo, it will go deeper into the water right? But this means that it is pushing more water out of the way (the water that used to be where the boat now is), which balances out the weight because that creates more buoyancy.

A rock, on the other hand, is heavier than the water that it displaces, so it sinks like a tanker whose front fell off.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

Since we are pedantic, what you say isn't true.

The tanker weights exactly as much as the weight of the water that it displaces. They are in balance. You describe it yourself. The tanker sinks deeper if it becomes heavier and swims more up as it becomes lighter.

The measure of "boat swims" is not the weight of the displaced water. It is wether there is some boat wall left sticking out of the water to keep more water from entering and displacing the air that keeps the submerged volume in weight balance with the water.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

So we have rising sea levels because there's so many big ships in the ocean, got it.

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