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If you haven't got a big enough graduated flask you could drive it off the end of a pier and see how far the water comes up the beach.


Another way might be to drive it very fast into a church and see how hot the fireball gets - it will be proportional to the kinetic energy in the system, which is itself a function of mass and velocity using the formula ? mv?. For the purposes of this calculation you could ignore the speed of the church.


If you want to keep it in one piece (you don't mention this) you could perhaps tie a stout rope around it and tie the other end to a bollard. If you knew the breaking strain of the rope (a good hardware store should be able to tell you), you could calculate how fast you had to drive around the bollard before the rope snapped. At this point you could calculate mass using the formula F = mv?/r, where F is the breaking strain of the rope, r is the length of the rope, and v is the speed you were going when it snapped.

Loz, if you assume the van was lighter than the water it displaced, then as it floated the mass of water displaced would equal the mass of the van.


If the van sank, you'd be buggered unless it was in a very deep part of the ocean where the density (and hence mass) of the water rose appreciably with depth. The van would sink until buoyancy was achieved at a particular depth (and hence density and mass).

Hallo all


Thanks for your suggestions, ideas, and insights.


Luckily, the population is not dependant upon the scientific knowledge of residents in ED.


I am going for the Local Amenity idea, then VOSPA.


I'll be back ( as Arnie Schwarzenneger said!)


Yours

R N Gutsell

the-e-dealer Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Almost right. But. actually the arcimedes principle relates to weight. I got my physics o

> level! Its not volume! Just noticed hugs explained better than me.


Weight of the water displaced, not the weight of the vehicle. As Hugo said, if the vehicle sunk (most likely) you wouldn't know it's weight.


The whole 'Eureka' story was that Archimedes knew the weight of the crown (?), but he didn't know its volume. So, he could not calculate the density and therefore decide if it was made of gold or not. But, once he stuck his fat backside in the bath...

woodrot Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I know a poor qulity joke regarding a suitable place to get the weight of your pet cetacean

> confirmed, but I cant be arsed.


Dunno about that joke, but I did hear about the oyster dancing rather vigorously at the disco. He pulled a mussel.

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