The Physics of Fishing
This week's question is inspired by a series of physics questions currently
appearing on city buses in Amherst, Massachusetts...
Say you are out fishing, in a boat on a lake, and you take the boat's anchor
and drop it over the side, into the lake: Does the water level of the lake
rise (since the anchor is now taking up space in the lake)? Or does the
water level fall (because the boat is now floating higher in the water)? Or
does the water level stay the same (because these two things cancel each
other out)? Or is it impossible to determine what the water level will do
without more information?
(Since there are only four possible answers, your first answer will be
final. And no, you do not have to show your work.)
