Comment by eurleif
2 years ago
To be fair, one could describe the duck as being made of air and vinyl polymer, which in combination are less dense than water. That's not how humans would normally describe it, but that's kind of arbitrary; consider how aerogel is often described as being mostly made of air.
Is an aircraft carrier made of a material that is less dense than water?
I think you can safely say that air is a critical component of an aircraft carrier. I suppose the frame of it is not made of air, but the ballasts are designed with air in mind and are certainly made to utilize air. The whole system fails without air, meaning that it requires air to function. It comes down to a definitional argument of the word "made" which is pointless.
I guess it's a purely philosophical question. But no normal person would say "my house is made of air" or "atoms are made of vacuum".
only if you average it out over volume :P
Is an aircraft carrier made of metal and air? Or just metal?
Where’s the distinction between the air that is part of the boat, and the air that is not? If the air is included in the boat, should we all be wearing life vests?
If I take all of the air out of a toy duck, it is still a toy duck. If I take all of the vinyl/rubber out of a toy duck, it is just the atmosphere remaining
The material of the duck is not air. It's not sealed. It would still be a duck in a vacuum and it would still float on a liquid the density of water too.