Floating and partly immersed balls in a weightless environment

Robert Finn

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Submission date: 15. Dec. 2004
published in: Functional differential equations, 12 (2005) 1-2, p. 167-173 
Bibtex
MSC-Numbers: 76D45, 53A10
Keywords and phrases: capillarity

Abstract:
It is shown that a ball floating in symmetric capillary equilibrium in an infinite liquid bath in the absence of gravity cannot symmetrically be pushed deeper into the liquid. This phenomenon is discussed from the point of view of approximation of the infinite bath by cylindrical tanks of increasing radius. A singular perturbation appears in the limit of infinite radius, of a sort that seems not easy to reconcile with physical experience.