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MiS Preprint
75/2008
Floating and sinking of needles, nails and disks
Robert Finn
Abstract
Explicit criteria are determined under which a long horizontal circular cylinder or a thin horizontal circular disk will float or not float in stable equilibrium on a liquid surface, under the influence of gravity and of surface tension. Attention is centered on configurations for which the density of the body exceeds that of the ambient liquid, so that in a downward gravity field there is no absolute energy minimum when the liquid bath is infinitely deep.
