You are sitting in a boat on a lake, you have with you in the boat a large rock. You throw the rock out of the boat and it sinks to the bottom of the lake, does the water level of the lake go up, down or stay the same?

Whilst in the boat the rock (and you) are floating, this means that the amount of water displaced by the rock is the mass of the rock. When the rock sinks to the bottom of the lake the amount of water displaced by the rock is the volume of the rock.
As the rock sinks to the bottom of the lake, we know that the rock is more dense than water.
As the rock is more dense than water, the rock will displace more (a greater volume of) water when floating than when at the bottom of the lake. This means that after throwing the rock out of the boat the water level of the lake as a whole will go down.

JB
Answered by Jonathan B. Physics tutor

10581 Views

See similar Physics A Level tutors

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

A 1.6m long string fixed at both ends vibrates at its fundamental frequency... (i)what is this frequency?


Calculate the frequency of a simple pendulum of length 950 mm. Give answer to an appropriate number of significant figures.


A car is travelling at 10m/s when it brakes and decelerates at 2ms^-2 to a stop. How long does the car take to stop?


A ball is thrown vertically downwards at a speed of 10ms^-1 from a height of 10m. Upon hitting the floor 10% of the energy is dissipated through waste heat. What is the heighest point the ball reaches before it comes to rest? Take g=10ms^-2


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2026 by IXL Learning