Why we can't walk on the top of the water?
By aslygirl
@aslygirl (531)
Philippines
2 responses
@g_aileen09 (1354)
• Philippines
25 Jan 07
I once had that question in mind when I was still a child, until I came across Mr. Archimedes. It has something to do with his Eureka! giving birth to displacement principle and density and water pressure and all that physics crap.
The larger area the same object covers over water, the more likely it will float. Why? Because if an object is placed over water, it is not only the object pushing itself downwards, but also, there is this so-called water resistance or water pressure that is keeping the object from reaching the bottom. The lighter the object, the harder for it to sink.
It is not true that ships float and humans do not. These can both float or sink, depending on the amount of water that can be displaced once they they are submerged.
1 person likes this
@g_aileen09 (1354)
• Philippines
25 Jan 07
Oh, one thing more... we cannot walk over water simply because water and the human body do not belong in the same state of matter. Water is liquid, while a human body is solid. But we can float, like boats do.
@sidharth07 (6)
• India
25 Jan 07
the only way u can walk on water is that the weight of your body is equal to the surface tension ie the surface tension is able to push u back for example if u put a needle slowly and carefully on the water it will float (when we know that it has higher density than water) because the surfacetension of the water is able to hold it up ... but our weight is quite large to be held by surface tension of waters so we cant walk on it.
there are ways to increase surface tension and as well as decrease it but i dont think that we can increase it to that level
@sidharth07 (6)
• India
25 Jan 07
and one more thing as far as the boats are concerned they are governed by entirely differnt phenomenan as explained by the person above me