Beaker Ball Balance Problem

2m read

·Nov 10, 2024

Here is the set up. I have a balance and two identical beakers, which I fill with exactly the same amount of water, except in one of the beakers there is a submerged ping pong ball tethered to the base of the beaker. And in the other there is an identically sized ball but made of acrylic. So it is denser than water and it is supported by a thread. Now I want you to make a prediction. If I were to release this balance and allow it to rotate freely, which way do you think it would tip, toward the acrylic ball, toward the ping pong ball or would it remain perfectly balanced? You can make your selection by clicking on one of the on screen annotations or clicking a link in the description.

If they are both displacing the same amount, like, I think it won’t rotate. So, yes, it will not rotate.
Stay balanced.
The ping pong ball does have mass, albeit not very much. I would predict that this end will sink.
I almost feel like this end would lift, because it is lighter than ... but it wouldn’t be pulling, because it is tethered to the lever. I don’t know.
I am thinking it would go this way. I am thinking because of the tension that is pulling this up.
So I guess if you're summing the forces, this one is more. So then this is going to rise. No... All right. So I just switched my mind. I am going to go with this one is going to rise.
But, I mean, it seems like this shouldn’t be contributing any force to this side, because it is suspended and the forces are balanced.
That means you would have more of a normal force on this side and it would tip that way.
It will tip down on the ping pong ball side?
Yeah, definitely the ping pong ball side.
Yeah. That is so weird.
So now you think it is going to up on this side and down on this side.
Are you ready? Three, two, one.

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Beaker Ball Balance Problem

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