There she goes. Sure is big. I hope it floats.
It's a little late to worry about that now. It's floating! Five me!
The Science Guide! Bill Nye, The Science Guide! Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill! Bill Nye, The Science Guide!
Science Rules! Bill Nye the Science Guy Inertia is a property of matter. Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill Nye the Science Guy Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill Nye the Science Guy Disney presents Bill Nye the Science Guy Brought to you by boats.
Boats float. Thank you. You know the reason that things float or sink is because water is heavy. That's right.
The weight of water is what makes things float. Either big heavy metal ships or small heavy metal cars. Oh, here.
Put this on. I, uh, I gotta turn down this alley here. Hang on.
It's a great thing. It's holding us up right now. Let me ask you something. You, me, and this boat are displacing water. How much do you think that water weighs?
It weighs the same as we do! Imagine this. Whenever a boat's in the water...
It pushes some water out of the way. We say it displaces some water. See, displace, place away, you with me?
So it's as though this model boat of science were making a hole in the water shaped like this. Now take a look. This is the Aquarium of Science, and it's filled right to the brim.
As the boat settles in, it displaces some water. It runs over the rim, down this gutter, into this pitcher. Now, the model boat of science displaced this water.
In fact, all boats displace water. In fact, everything you put in the water displaces some water. Here, watch.
This is the water level of the dunk tank of science. Watch. Using the latest in dunk tank technology, I am going to displace some water.
You ready? Three, two, one. What are we doing?
What are we doing? Pretty cool, huh? I just placed some water, right?
Just like the model boat of science. Now watch this. I'm going to place the boat on the scale, which right now is in balance. The boat takes it out of balance.
Now I'm gonna put the water that we displaced earlier on the other side. See? Just balances. Now watch this. Take the displaced water, take the water, put it back in the hole we had earlier.
That's one. Here's the second. It fits exactly!
Isn't that cool? Science rules! You can make a boat that sinks.
Not that you normally want it to do that, but it does show you a lot about displacement. Try this. Take a piece of clay and mold it into a boat like this. Okay, it might not be a great boat, but at least it floats.
See? Now take the boat and mold it into a ball. It sinks!
See, when the clay is in the shape of a boat, it displaces the same amount of water as it does when it's a ball, but it ends up floating. The shape of the clay makes the difference. Let's do this again and measure how much water gets pushed out of these balls.
These are the same amounts of clay. See? It's about the same amount of water. Cool! Hey, let's try this.
I'll make an aluminum foil boat. I wonder if it'll float. It's metal, just like bicycles.
And they sink. I happen to know. Look! Our aluminum foil boat of science is floating.
It's metal, and it floats. If the foil is in a ball, I wonder what will happen. Cool!
So boats that are made of stuff that sink, flow. If they're shaped right. That's buoyancy. That's science. And that's cool.
When objects like boats are placed in water, they push some water out of the way. We say they displace some water. It's a buoyancy party! Psst! Hey kid, this is your conscience beacon.
Remember, things displace as much water as they weigh. Okay, it should work! Huh? Sorry about that.
We interrupt this program to bring you the following. Some things float, but others sink. To what do we owe this remarkable phenomenon?
Boy, you can see why that's what water does to things sitting in it all. or on it, or under it. Those things placed in oceans, lakes, and even bathtubs that displace an amount of water that weighs as much as they do float. We like to call this buoyancy.
Boy, oh boy. This floats. This sinks. Floats. Sinks.
Floats. Sinks. We now return to our usual program. Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Tybo, Ty science and just as you'd expect it floats i mean it's hollow so it easily displaces as much water as it weighs and it ends up floating let me ask you this here's a tennis ball cut in half is it going to float or sink Well, one test is worth a thousand expert opinions.
Take a look. It floats. And it floats a little higher. That might not be what you'd expect at first.
That's because it doesn't weigh as much. So it sinks until it displaces as much water as it weighs, and then it floats. Now, let's say we add a little weight to it, like when we put on a mast and a sail.
Well, it floats too, but not quite as high. Now, here's a toy boat, toy boat, toy boat of science. Watch, same thing.
thing. It floats. Then if I push down on it, which makes it weigh more, it floats a little lower. It displaces more water. Now, the first guy to figure this out was a Greek guy named Archimedes.
Archimedes got in a bathtub and it overflowed. And he realized suddenly at that moment that he could figure out how much volume things have, how much space things take up, if he knew how much water they displaced when they sink. Anyway, he was so excited.
excited by this. He said, Eureka! Which is Greek for, I found it!
And he jumped out of the tub and went running down the street with no clothes on. It was a big deal 2,000 years ago. Well, it still is a big deal. Thank you for considering the following.
Learn to scuba the skip way at Skip's School of Scuba Diving. With Skip's patented pay now, learn now technique, you'll be underwater in no time. You're seeing a young lady Learn how to wear a mask and snorkel.
Why that? A little ball doesn't work. But I guess they never figured out what would happen if the diver turned upside down. And how to look graceful under the water.
When you need to scuba, scuba the skipway at Skip's School of Scuba Diving. Corner of Estuary and Wetland Drive. Skip's School of Scuba. We want all you people out there watching us to know what's going on down here. You may not realize it, but we're getting diseases because of what you're polluting us.
All right, all the way around here is just like tons of this. The pollution problem isn't just here, it's everywhere. Bointzy is great if you're a surfer because it's what keeps your board afloat, but it's also what keeps trash afloat, so it's a good end-to-end. Don't think just because it's, oh it's just one piece of trash, what if everybody thought that then we'd have tons of trash down here. So, everyone makes a difference.
Boise rules! See ya! Well.
We've reached that part of the show. What part of the show? The part of the show where we see what sinks and what floats.
Oh. Okay. How about this loaf of bread?
Empty carton, full carton. Check. Did you get that, Cammie? Check!
When throwing a toaster in the pool, be sure to have an adult around. Adults, be sure the toaster is unplugged. Same safety tip as the toaster.
You don't want to jump to conclusions. See that? Nah, she sank. It's down there now.
Cammie, did you make a note of that? Check. That about wraps it up. Anything else? Yeah.
I float! Did you get that? Check!
Good crew. Great crew. You can make your own submarine in a bottle. All you need is a squeezable bottle, then you need a cap to a ballpoint pen and some modeling clay. the clay the open end of the pen cap so that it just barely floats this is your submarine just fill up the bottle with water put your submarine in and screw the cap on real tight now squeeze the bottle submarine goes up and down.
With a little practice, you can control how deep your sub goes. As you squeeze the bottle, you squeeze the clay in the air in the pan cap. The air takes up a little less room in the water. It displaces less water and it sinks. Fish have what scientists like you and me call swim bladders.
Fish fill their bladders with oxygen. By making their swim bladder fill or shrink a little, they can control their depth perfectly, just like you can control the depth of your submarine. Watch this. A rock.
sinks. We say it's negatively buoyant. Piece of wood floats. We say it's positively buoyant. Now, what about this?
It's the rock-wood combination of science. What'll it do? Well... Neither! It neither sinks nor floats.
We say it's neutrally buoyant. Now, neutral? That's Latin for somewhere in between, either positive or negative. Now, take a look at this. It's a rock-balloon combination of science.
What'll happen? Hmm... Same thing.
Now, using bubbles of air to control your depth is how submarines, fish, and scuba divers keep at the same level in the water. Neutral buoyancy can be a lot of fun. This submarine is a wet submarine.
Two people fit inside of it, believe it or not. Breathe on scuba gear and the buoyancy control is by flooding the buoyancy tank with either compressed air or seawater. And we use human power to move us around in the water. When I'm in here pedaling, I can't really see, I can't see at all where we're going.
That's the pilot's job to do that. Therefore the depth can be controlled either by the joysticks and control surfaces or the buoyancy. Thanks. Negative buoyancy.
Positive buoyancy. There is no room in here. Do you know me?
This is a buoyancy compensator. Scuba diving is all about buoyancy. A buoyancy compensator is a vest you fill with air. Either using air from your tank when you press this button. Isn't that a cool sound?
or you can do it the old-fashioned way like this. Either way, the vest fills with air, displaces more water, and you become more buoyant. Now let's say you want to go down. Well, then you press this button, let some air out, and you'll sink.
Ready to see if this thing works? Come on. It does! And it's a good thing too, because Bill Nye the Sinking Guy would be a pretty short-lived show.
Yeah, this is buoyancy! Come on! He's wet.
He's deep. He floats. Johnny Death stars in Buoyancy Boy. Hey Johnny, what'll it be?
H201Q. Johnny Depp is Buoyancy Boy. You ain't seen nothing till you've seen him float.
Coming soon to theaters everywhere. This is a dry dock. A big boat sails into it. They pump all the water out and the whole thing floats.
You got a boat floating in a boat. Buoyancy in action. Well, see ya.
Hot air balloons float. That's right, they have buoyancy. They're just like a boat or a buoy, but they're floating in air instead of water. Now this is our hot air balloon trash bag of science.
And I'm going to inflate it using this hair dryer. Hot air molecules are moving faster than cool air molecules, so you need fewer of them to get the balloon to hold its shape. So it weighs less, it displaces the cool air around it, and it has buoyancy. It floats!
If you can displace enough air, you'll go up, just like a bubble in water. A hot air balloon is like a bubble in air. It's buoyancy!
We're floating! When a boat's in the water, it pushes water out of the way. It's displacing water.
And it displaces an amount of water that weighs as much as it does. And here we are, floating. Beautiful day for buoyancy. Nice work if you can get it. This boat is also a car.
It's shaped in such a way that it displaces the same amount of water as a wave. When an object displaces an amount of water that weighs as much as it does, it floats. Return on the bilge pump. Ooh, Mr. Water, you say that it's just too easy? Well, tell me, show me, find a way not to confuse me.
You see it floating. There's no way it's sinking, because it's dense. It makes sense as long as something weighs the same or less than the water it's displacing. Will this weight give me a reason? Take your average object, see what you think.
Does it float or sink? Bill's got a boat. Bill's got a boat.
Watch cartoons, I wanna inform ya, I won't disavow ya, but I gotta be straight when I say that I wanna float, even when the boat is gone, buoyancies are the name of this song, don't even try to tell me I'm wrong, when something's placed in the water, it gets pushed down with its weight, then gravity pulls, science rules, to the top and water pushes it back, some objects, like bricks, don't displace enough air or water, but that can be changed when the form and shape is rearranged, that's how things float. Thanks for floating around with me today. Remember, this car, I mean this boat and I, displace an amount of water that weighs as much as we do. Well, stay buoyant. See you on the water.
Produced in association with the National Science Foundation.