Question 04/04
NONUNIFORM ARCHIMEDES
A planet with VERY inhomogeneous mass distribution may have
a very non-uniform gravitational field on its surface, and equipotential
surfaces of the field will not be flat as depicted by black lines
in the picture above. Consider a body of water (lake)
on the surface of such a planet. Discuss flotation of bodies in such
a liquid. Can you formulate a generalized Archimedes law? (As an example
consider flotation of a solid sphere.)
This this problem was inspired by discussions with Gyozo Egri,
Marton Kormos and Bence Kocsis.
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