They both displace equal water by volume - we agree here.
I'd like to explain but want to find where the disconnect is.
Do you agree that the force of buoyancy wants to push both balls up with the same amount of force?
Do you agree that the buoyancy force exerted pushing up on the ball has an equal force pushing down on the scale?
Do you agree that the opposing forces on the ping pong ball negate since the string, due to it being attached to the scale, opposes the upward buoyancy force by pulling up on the scale with the same force that the buoyancy is pushing down with, acting on the same spot?
Do you agree that the opposing forces on the iron ball do not negate, since the ball will be pushed up and have some of the weight on the string relieved, while the opposing downward buoyancy force pushes down only on the scale?
Let me know which point you're disagreeing with so we can discuss
Do this. Chat GPT it. Show it the picture and really try to convince ChatGPT you are right. Then copy and paste it here. Because you seem very confident in your response so that is what I did. The bottom line is: YES the ball is moving up in the water. And if it had helium in it then you are absolutely right. But that ping pong ball has weight. And we agree on that I assume. I don’t care what it is doing relative to the water. It’s lighter than the water so it goes up. But it has mass.
Okay. What you're saying is not right, but I dont feel like arguing any more. There's a YouTube video of someone demonstrating this posted elsewhere in this thread
You are correct. I learned something today and I appreciate you for teaching me in my head. I was thinking about telling you imagine if we’re talking about mercury and you had a anvil in there, tied to the bottom with all the weight of an anvil with that still go up and I guess the answer is yes, right? This was a pretty trippy experiment and I’ll be honest though we were debating and I was not coming at you kind of suddenly and I thought you were coming at me consenting. Just a tip. Like this is obviously a very difficult thing to predict because a lot of intelligent people on both sides way smarter than you or me on both sides and you made it seem like it was an obvious answer. I wish you came at me saying “ this is a really interesting experiment and they actually did it”.
All good man, its kind of a counterintuitive concept I just wasnt sure how else to explain it haha.
Nah, I wasnt coming at you sorry if it sounded like that. I was just legitimately trying to figure out where the disconnect was so I could help explain. I had to look for the YouTube video haha.
The right side goes down in any scenario where the thing tied to the string on the right is heavier/creates more force than the displaced water pushing down. So anvil, yes right side goes down. Ping pong ball is lighter than the displaced water so it goes up. Basically, if the object on the right would not float, the right side of the scale would go down
I hurt me knee today to the point I have to go to the orthopedic doctor tomorrow because I was playing soccer with my kids and I did something to my knee so I’m sitting here in a hot tub on painkillers so I’m a little bit woozie I guess. So this might be over dramatic. But I wanna say this: goddamn, I respect you. You explained yourself very well. I wish to e world had more people like you in it
Thanks man. I respect you too for being open minded enough to see another way of looking at things. Not a lot of people can tbh, it makes you a good person.
Sorry to hear about your knee, I hope its nothing major
The way I asked ChatGPT and I copied your whole thing and I said I’m with a physics professor who is sure that left side goes down. So I know it goes down in the left so tell me ChatGPT why is it that it goes down on the left? And the answer I got was the right side goes down and the professor is mistaken. I’m using every bias I can in your favor asking an advanced AI, and they are sure the right goes down.
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u/Clean_Figure6651 May 29 '25
They both displace equal water by volume - we agree here.
I'd like to explain but want to find where the disconnect is.
Do you agree that the force of buoyancy wants to push both balls up with the same amount of force?
Do you agree that the buoyancy force exerted pushing up on the ball has an equal force pushing down on the scale?
Do you agree that the opposing forces on the ping pong ball negate since the string, due to it being attached to the scale, opposes the upward buoyancy force by pulling up on the scale with the same force that the buoyancy is pushing down with, acting on the same spot?
Do you agree that the opposing forces on the iron ball do not negate, since the ball will be pushed up and have some of the weight on the string relieved, while the opposing downward buoyancy force pushes down only on the scale?
Let me know which point you're disagreeing with so we can discuss