A toy wooden canoe is floating in a swimming pool.

Which will raise the level of the water in the pool higher:
Dropping a penny into the pool or, dropping the penny into the canoe?

When placed into the canoe, the displacement of an object will be a volume of water equal in mass to the object.

When placed into the water, an object that sinks will displace a volume of water equal to its own volume.

Since a penny is denser than water, it will displace more if placed in the canoe.

(Unless the canoe gets swamped, in which case anything could happen, depending on the canoe and any other cargo.)

Posted by Jer on 2013-01-17 16:37:32