If you'd fill the sea...
If you'd fill the sea with spunges, for 50%, would the sea level rise or lower?
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Comments ( 18
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LesserKnownCharacter
Do you have some sponges, a clear container, a marker and some water? What do you suppose a fellow could do with those items?
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VioletTrees
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Fammer3
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Darkoil
The surface area to volume ratio of a sponge may seem really high but the sponge does still have a volume, hence it has a mass so obviously the sea level would rise.
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VioletTrees
It depends on what you mean by "rise". Unless you removed the sponges, the sea level would rise in that the height of the massive pile of wet sponges where the ocean used to be would be greater than the current sea level. I don't think sponges actually significantly compress water, they just hold it. The water fills some of the holes in the sponges, but I don't think it actually takes up any less space while it's in the sponge. So adding sponges wouldn't raise the sea level as much as adding something that doesn't absorb water, like ball bearings or cats. They'd still add volume, though.
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kr24
You are right when you say sponges don't significantly compress water. In fact, they can only retain it. Liquids cannot be compressed, ever.
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VioletTrees
That's not strictly true. Liquids can be compressed. That includes water, but it takes a great deal of pressure to compress it appreciably.
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kr24
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ThrowawayAlt14159
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LordRahl
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VioletTrees
It's cool! It was a little silly of me to mention the possibility of compression like that in the first place. It should be pretty obvious that sponges wouldn't compress water, but then I was like "Oh shit, what if there's something I'm not taking into account? I'd better be weird and wishy-washy about this shit".
Anyway, don't worry. There are way worse physics embarrassments to be had than that. I was once rude about Neil Degrasse Tyson's teaching methods on a forum (and part of my objection was that I thought one of the things he said was false/meaningless, which turned out not to be the case), and then Professor Tyson actually showed up, very politely responded, and recommended some books to me to clear up the misunderstanding. It was weird and super embarrassing, but I have a lot of respect for him now.
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kr24
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shade_ilmaendu
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anti-hero
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SeverusFan23
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jucedaguy
Common sense says it would rise. You're decreasing the holding capacity of the vessel
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