Brainteaser: The Anchor

(Image credit: Michael Nika Photography)

You're sitting on a boat in a swimming pool. You have a large anchor on the boat. You drop the anchor into the water, and of course, it sinks immediately. What happens to the water level in the pool?

a. It goes up
b. It goes down.
c. It stays the same.

Continue reading for the correct answer.

The answer is (highlight): b. It goes down. When the anchor is in the boat, its weight is pulling the boat down causing an equivalent of weight in water to be displaced in the pool. Example: If an anchor weighs ten pounds, it displaces ten pounds of water. But when you drop the anchor into the pool, it displaces only an equivalent VOLUME of water, not an equivalent weight. If the anchor is one quart in volume, it will only displace one quart of water, which is less than ten pounds of water. Really.

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This brainteaser was reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!