"Dead man's float"
Spanbock/Svoboda-Spanbock
spanbocks at VERIZON.NET
Mon Jun 2 20:16:11 UTC 2014
Good point about lungs.
Here is an article on the various possibilities:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2005/09/dead_mans_float.html
--
Kate
On Jun 2, 2014, at 12:55 PM, Christopher Philippo wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Christopher Philippo <toff at MAC.COM>
> Subject: Re: "Dead man's float"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jun 2, 2014, at 3:44 PM, Spanbock/Svoboda-Spanbock <spanbocks at VERIZON.NET> wrote:
>> if you drop a toothpick into a bowl of water point down, it will rise to a horizontal position, i.e. presumably the most naturally efficient position for floatation, which I presume is what we mean by most buoyant.
>
> The most buoyant position for a toothpick, sure. If a toothpick had muscle, fat, bone, lungs, joints, limbs, etc. that might complicate things.
>
> Chris Philippo
>
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