Tuesday, September 7, 2010

PUZZLE: Bathtub Boat

This problem from Martin Gardner isn't really a puzzle, but I thought it was interesting:

A small boy is sailing a plastic boat in his tub. The boat is loaded with nuts and bolts.

If he dumps the nuts and bolts into the water, allowing the boat to float empty, will the water level in the tub rise or fall?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The water level will fall, because the nuts and bolts aren't floating any more.

Thomas L. McDonald said...

Correct. Inside the boat, the nuts and bolts displace an amount of water based on their weight. Once in the water, the nuts and bolts only displace an amount of water equal to their volume.

plumbing said...

I do agree with them. The water displacement will be based on their weight .

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