Science
Does a Dead Body Sink or Float?
An intriguing fact for a rainy day or a dull party
The other day a friend asked me a morbid question; does a dead body sink or float? — He was reading a thriller. If you ever found yourself wondering about the same question. No worries, I got you covered.
Dead bodies float and sink.
Huh?
The Basics
Whether something sinks or floats is determined by a simple interaction between two opposite forces. Firstly, there is a force upward, the buoyancy force. This force is equal to the weight of the liquid that an object displaces. It is known as the Archimedes’ principle. The second force is a downward force, our best friend, gravity, which is proportional to the mass of an object.
If the force caused by the gravity is more than the that of the buoyancy, an object will sink. Plain math.
Put differently, in simpler words, something will sink if it is denser than the surrounding liquid.
