eureka!
And to think that old Greek solved it all in his bath! Anything in the boat is floating and therefore has to displace a volume of water whose upthrust equals the weight of the boat and everything in it. Water is 62.4lbs/cu ft fresh and 64lbs/cu ft salty whereas stone, iron etc are much more dense by a factor of two to three. Once anything is in the water whether it is touching bottom or not it merely displaces its own volume. Thus the floating anchor displaces more water than the sunken anchor. M'lud chuck the anchor overboard, less water is displaced overall and therefore the water level falls. Whether or not the anchor touches bottom is irrelevant.
Last edited by enicalyth; 28th May 2007 at 08:31.
Reason: clarity