A boat in zero gravity : would it sink?

[AlfredJPruffock]

Not wishing to put a downer on things but, given the hypothesised existence of "dark matter" surely there's no such thing as zero gravity?

The point is that by using the Lagrange points you can effectively cancel the effects of the gravitational pull of planets, this would be an ideal location for 'floating' the boat.

Whatever Floats your boat ...


The Lagrange points mark positions where the combined gravitational pull of the two large masses provides precisely the centripetal force required to rotate with them. They are analogous to geostationary orbits in that they allow an object to be in a "fixed" position in space rather than an orbit in which its relative position changes continuously.

[Churchill]

It's fascinating really...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet#Coma_and_tail

MM, I know how it's formed, I'm just trying to get a few others to realise the mistakes in their posts...

[EternalOptimist]

The moon doesn't have "Zero" gravity.

it does


right in the middle

[Moscow Mule]

If it's so cold in space then why is the comet heating up?

Because there's no matter there.

Little matter = little friction = little heat.

Photons aren't matter (IIRC - that might have changed)

Put something there, it gets hit by photons, it gets hot. The space around it (nothing) doesn't get hot.

[original PM]

If it's so cold in space then why is the comet heating up?

Apologies it is absorbing energy in the form of radiation which "heats" up the comet.

Oh and space is not cold 2 cms from the suns corona (or wherever the edge of the sun stops and space starts!)

[Menelaus]

You guys are talking about this as if its a thought experiment or something, but it has actually been done, and the answer was YES , it did sink, but only by about two centimetres.
When they landed their ship in the sea of tranquility in 1969, many feared it would sink without trace, but it didnt.

The moon's a rocky mass

[TimberWolf]

If a boat was floating on the sea out in space, would it sink?

Do you mean outer space?

[Menelaus]

Apologies it is absorbing energy in the form of radiation which "heats" up the comet.

Oh and space is not cold 2 cms from the suns corona (or wherever the edge of the sun stops and space starts!)

they co-exist - the sun is in space

[Churchill]

Apologies it is absorbing energy in the form of radiation which "heats" up the comet.
Oh and space is not cold 2 cms from the suns corona (or wherever the edge of the sun stops and space starts!)

Halle-f**king-lujah!

[EternalOptimist]

The moon's a rocky mass

The OP said sea, he did not rule out rocky masses.
I reckon the sea of tranquility qualifies, and therefore I claim the points