Jarmo Hurri wrote:

Ken ... A silk line won't float at all unless you dress it, usually
Ken with red Mucilin.
And does it even then float worse than an ordinary plastic line?

Ken It floats about the same for awhile, but it won't float all day
Ken like a plastic line will.

I guess that as scientists, we need experiments: this is just all too
imprecise. :-)

But if it were to float just the same, then the density explanation
would not hold. I think that the task of the dressing is just to keep
the line from soaking water, that is, to keep its density the same all
the time.


Let an amateur scientist poke his nose in here for a minute. There are
two components of flotation, one is density, the other is surface
tension. If you treat the silk line, you do 2 things for it, 1) you
reduce it's tendency to get wet and pass through the surface film, and
2) you delay the time when water starts to enter the line and add
weight. We see the same effect with flies that we add floatant to.
The fly is still too heave to float, but until it's pushed through the
surface film it floats beautifully.

Sinking agents work like soap, making the surface like water, and
eliminating the surface tension. Floatants are the opposite, resisting
the water and using the surface tension.

Chas
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