the.com/buoyancy
the universe's way of letting heavy things lie about their weight.
means The upward force a fluid exerts on an object, which lets things float or feel lighter when submerged.
from From the verb 'buoy' — that floating marker anchored to warn ships — which came into English (probably via Dutch 'boei' or Old French) from a Latin root tied to 'boia,' a chain or fetter, because the float was tethered down. The '-ancy' ending turns the floating thing into the quality of floating, and from there it drifted, fittingly, into the figurative buoyancy of cheerful spirits.
- archimedes
- discovered it overflowing his bath, allegedly naked in the street
- steel floats
- shape, not material, decides who sinks
- dead sea
- so salty you float reading a newspaper
- helium too
- balloons rise on the exact same principle, in air
- swim bladder
- fish hover using an internal gas balloon
dead sea — saltwater lake between israel and jordan where swimmers float effortlessly at 34.2% salinity
great salt lake — hypersaline lake in utah where buoyancy allows people to float without swimming, ~5-27% salinity depending on section
titanic iceberg collision 1912 — iceberg's buoyancy in atlantic water caused it to displace 46,000 tons, making it nearly invisible and leading to the disaster