Explain it like I’m 5(ELI5): I was at a hot spring this weekend in Colorado, around 11,500 ft elevation. Our group was noticing that the hot spring rocks seemed to fall faster in the water and we started debating whether this was the case. I know water density has an impact, but don’t know more beyond that and at what rate, the density impacts how something sinks through it.
My question is: would a rock fall faster in 100° F water, than 50°F water, if it’s the same water source, just different temperatures? If so, why is that, and how vast of a difference would the ‘fall rate’ be of the rock?
Any supporting links would be great too! there’s a bet on the line for who cooks dinner next, and I was on the side of rocks falling at the same speed between 50-100°… 🤣
In: Physics
Water does generally get slightly more dense as the temperature decreases, down to around 4c. After that as it moves closer to freezing then the molecules start kinda arranging in the grid configuration that makes ice less dense than liquid water.
Also, in general when a liquid’s temperature increases, it’s viscosity decreases, and viscosity is a liquid’s resistance to flow. So a warmer liquid with less viscosity should allow an object to ‘push the liquid’ out of the way easier as it falls through the liquid.
This website might help:
https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/water-viscosity
Temperature affects both the density of the water and its viscosity. However, unless your group was sporting some pretty accurate scientific instruments you weren’t measuring this. Maybe the rocks in the hot pool are less dense because minerals have leached out and been replaced with water (or even air). Lots of things could be going on.
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