The floating mystery (Posted on 2003-03-26)

	Submitted by Gautam
Rating: 3.2500 (8 votes)
Solution:	(Hide)
The cork will stay at the bottom of the bucket and not float up at all during the fall, since the cork, the bucket and the water all fall at the same acceleration g (neglecting air resistance as all good physics questions do). The buoyant force of the water does not push the cork upward in this case since in free fall the buoyant force is zero. In other words, a cork only floats up when the water around it is heavier and pushes it up. In free fall the water is weightless, as is the cork and bucket, so there is no force to push the cork to the top of the bucket.

	Subject	Author	Date
	Puzzle Thoughts	K Sengupta	2023-08-08 09:22:00
	solution	vije	2004-07-03 05:31:11
	don't force it	Helen	2003-11-15 17:27:10
	Density	Drew Skau	2003-08-19 18:04:50
	Solution	Chaz	2003-05-03 09:14:13
	No Subject	Rajat	2003-03-29 08:05:31
	solution	Charlie	2003-03-26 07:55:17
	Galileo sez ...	Bryan	2003-03-26 07:05:23