This project presents an interesting puzzle. A disk of wood will float face-up, that is, with its circular cross-section parallel to the surface of the water. A long log of wood, however, floats with the circular cross-section perpendicular to the surface of the water. If you think about it, disks and logs are both cylinders. Is there some intermediate length of cylinder that floats with the circular cross-section at a tilted angle? Perform this experiment to find out.

Concepts

buoyancy, density, mass

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Additional Tags

floating cylinders, science fair project, aerodynamics & hydrodynamics, science buddies, science project

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Classroom Considerations

• Knovation Readability Score: 3 (1 low difficulty, 5 high difficulty)