Science help?

[rustydog]

In his research paper, student talks about Archimedes' principle and gives, as an example, elevated water sources that deliver water to a municipal area. But I don't see how that's an example of buoyancy. I think it's just gravity that creates the pressure that delivers the water

Comments

[rustydog]

Thank you! I watched a video on gravity vs. density, and I already knew everything it was teaching (that was a relief, since the lessons were very basic!) but it did mention gravity. And there's this, from the Wikipedia entry "Water tower": "Water towers are able to supply water even during power outages, because they rely on pressure produced by elevation of water (due to gravity) to push the water into domestic and industrial water distribution systems." That confirms what I thought.

I'm still unclear on why the pressure increases with height (I thought the force of gravity decreased with further distance from the earth's core) but I know it's not to do with bouyancy. My reasoning is that both water and air are denser in the lower levels (lots of other water/air packed on top of them, closer to the earth -- has to be due to gravity) which of course would increase the buoyancy of objects there. So the fact that a greater elevation increases the pressure of the water in a water tower confirms (I think) that that particular pressure has nothing to do with buoyancy.

Okay, I *so* do not have time to spend this long on one question that doesn't really have to do with the technicalities of research paper writing! This is one of the reasons I get so behind, I get obsessed with details and cannot make myself stay on track.

I hope you're having a good day! :)