Cartesian Diver

Cartesian Diver

The purpose of the Cartesian diver is to demonstrate the compressibility of a gas, the incompressibility of water, Boyle's law, Pascal's law, and Archimedes' law. Boyle's Law states that under conditions of constant temperature and quantity, there is an inverse relationship between the volume and pressure for an ideal gas. Pascal's Law states that if pressure is applied to a non-flowing fluid in a container, then that pressure is transmitted equally in all directions within the container. Archimedes' principles is an upward force on an object immersed in a fluid (a liquid or a gas), enabling it to float or at least to appear to become lighter. If the buoyancy exceeds the weight, then the object floats; if the weight exceeds the buoyancy, the object sinks. It was Archimedes who first discovered buoyancy

(also known as Archimedes' principle). The buoyant force is equal to the weight of the displaced fluid.

The Cartesian diver shows that air is compressable and water is incompressable because when you squeeze the contanir the pressure you caused is distrubited equal throughout the container (Pascal's law) and the volume of air in the pipet decreases because of the increased pressure of the water surrounding the pipet (Boyle's law). Since the the volume of air inside the pipet decreased, and water filled up where the air use to be, the pipet becomes densier and will begin to sink if enough pressure is apllied. It begins to sink because it beomes densier so the upward force of the water is not great enough to keep the pipet floating (Archmides principal).

When you stop squeezing the container, the pipet will float back to the top because the pressure that was compressing the air in the pipet was relived so the air could take is normal volume again which make it least dense. As you can see, the Cartesian diver does demonstrate the compressibility of a gas, the incompressibility of water, Boyle's law, Pascal's law, and Archimedes' law and you know the definitions of the laws involved which have to do with the Cartesian diver with the help of this paper.

http://www.fatlion.com/science/cartesian.html

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/pbuoy3.html