Quote:
Originally posted by onetime2
Correct me if I'm wrong here but a "cylinder with the curved side down" has a curved side up as well. If it's split in the middle aren't both sides mirror images of each other? Additionally, wouldn't a sphere split in the middle have each half as mirror images?
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This is simply not the issue. You want to use ratios to determine the original volume of water but you can only use ratios if the change in water level is
proportional to the change in water volume. If you were to think about the geometry of the barrel, you'd see that this is not the case. Thus, your method is insufficient...
If you knew the volume of the container and the amount of water used to fill the tank, you can simply take the
difference and that would be the volume of water oringally in the tank.
However, and again, not only is it a difficult thing to fill a tank with a measured amount of water but you are also disturbing the system. I mean, what's the point of knowing how much water
was in the tank if you're going to fill it to find out?
There's much to be said for determining the state of a system without changing it.
The only time I have taken this thread personally is when it became apparent that
DDDDave didn't read the thread and that has very little to do with the question and more to do with a peeve of mine.
Instead of defending yourself from criticism, perhaps you should try learning from them?