So i’ve recently seen alot of videos with those unsinkable boats in a box: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UuNTJQEd88&ab\_channel=Commonlee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UuNTJQEd88&ab_channel=Commonlee) now I get that the blue stuff is water with food coloring and the transparent stuff is oil and that oil always stays on top of the water. But why does the boat always stay inside the oil part? Thanks!
In: Physics
The boat is more dense than the oil but less dense than the water. So it will always float to the top of the water, but always sink to the bottom of the oil. It remains trapped in the middle.
It’s all about density. The materials in the boat are balanced in just such a way as to give it a density *in between* that of the two fluids, so it sinks in one liquid but floats in the other.
Think of a balloon floating in a bowl of water. Would you be able to do anything to make the balloon sink in the water or float in the air?
No matter how much you move the water around or turn it or sink the balloon by hand, it will always end up floating.
That’s because the balloon is less dense than the water but denser than air (because of the balloon material itself).
It’s the same thing here but instead of air there is another liquid on the top of the blue liquid.
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