Question

Imagine you are in a small boat on a small pond that has no inflow or outflow. If you take an anchor that was sitting on the floor of the boat and lower it over the side until it sits on the ground at the bottom of the pond, will the water level rise slightly, stay the same, or lower slightly

Answer 1

The pond's water level will fall.

Step-by-step explanation:

Archimedes principle explains that a floating body will displace the amount of water that weighs the same as it, whereas a body resting on the bottom of the water displaces the amount of water that is equal to the body's volume.

When the anchor is in the boat it is in the category of floating body and when it is on the bottom of the pond it is in the second category.

Since anchors are naturally heavy and denser than water, the amount of water displaced when the anchor is in the boat is greater than the amount of water displaced when the anchor is on the bottom of the pond since the way anchors are doesn't make for them to have considerable volume.

When the anchor is dropped to the bottom of the pond, the water level will therefore fall. If the anchor doesn't reach the bottom it is still in the floating object category and there will be no difference to the water level, but once it touches the bottom of the pond, the water level of the pond drops.