Question

A person in a boat floating in a small pond throws an anchor overboard. What happens to the level of the pond?
A. It rises.
B. It falls.
C. It remains the same.

Answer 1

Hint:The question mentioned can be solved by using the Archimedes’ principle. Archimedes' principle states that the upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, be it fully or partially, is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces. Here, the anchor is the object and the fluid body being the body of water, experiences a force exerted by the weight of the anchor and that displaces the amount of water from the pond.

Complete answer:
The level of the pond falls. This is because the anchor displaces more water while in the boat. A floating object displaces a volume of water whose weight is equal to the weight of the object. A submerged object displaces a volume of water equal to the volume of the object.

Because the density of the anchor is greater than that of water, a volume of water that weighs the same as the anchor will be greater than the volume of the anchor.This concludes that when a person in a boat floating in a small pond throws an anchor overboard, the level of water in the pond falls.

Hence, option B is the right answer.

Note:Some might think that the water level remains the same because the body of water level has comparatively more amount of water than any utensil we might use in our daily lives and it gets displaced to the same body of water. That is not to be assumed in this case because the amount of water is still getting displaced by the anchor.