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A comment on Draw an iceberg and see how it would float in water. Parent comment

Re:Draw an iceberg and see how it would float in water by WJW on Saturday February 20, 2021 @09:39AM (#26204380)
I don't think there is a stable "vertical" configuration without the negative mass trick from crossing lines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacentric_height

Any convex shape will tend to minimize the forces due to buoyancy and "horizontal" should always go less deep (or equal for a sphere) than "vertical"

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Re:Draw an iceberg and see how it would float in water by mawise on Saturday February 20, 2021 @11:05AM (#26205118)
https://imgur.com/a/OjuWEKK

It can be in a local minima of buoyancy without being a global minima. Similar to an un-sharpened pencil balanced on it's end.

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Re:Draw an iceberg and see how it would float in water by WJW on Saturday February 20, 2021 @11:45AM (#26205503)
Cool, I stand corrected. I tried with a few triangles of my own but they never stayed upright, but maybe I just suck at drawing and they all started too far off-center to remain in the little "valley" of the stability diagram.
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