Comment by glitchc
2 years ago
Well this seems like a huge nitpick. If a person said that, you would afford them some leeway, maybe they meant the whole duck, which includes the hollow part in the middle.
As an example, when most people say a balloon's lighter than air, they mean an inflated balloon with hot air or helium, but you catch their meaning and don't rush to correct them.
The model specifically said that the material is less dense than water. If you said that the material of a balloon is less dense than air, very few people would interpret that as a correct statement, and it could be misleading to people who don't know better.
Also, lighter-than-air balloons are intentionally filled with helium and sealed; rubber ducks are not sealed and contain air only incidentally. A balloon in a vacuum would still contain helium (if strong enough) but would not rise, while a rubber duck in a vacuum would not contain air but would still easily float on a liquid of similar density to water.
The reason why it seems like a nitpick is that this is such an inconsequential thing. Yeah, it's a false statement but it doesn't really matter in this case, nobody is relying on this answer for anything important. But the point is, in cases where it does matter these models cannot be trusted. A human would realize when the context is serious and requires accuracy; these models don't.