Studying the Cartesian Diver 2.25 Taking principles developed by
Greek philosopher Archimedes more than 2,000 years ago, students
constructed their own Cartesian Diver to study the relationship
between buoyancy and density. The Cartesian Diver is named for
17th century French scientist René Descartes although his
connection to the experiment has never been found. A more
correct name might be the Maggiotti Diver since it was Galileo’s
student Raffaelo Maggiotti who claimed to have invented the
device. In the modern version of the experiment, students take a
plastic pipette (medicine dropper) and thread a metal nut onto
the stem. This is the diver. The diver is partially filled with
water—just enough so it barely floats upright in a container of
water. The diver is inserted into a soft drink bottle of water
and the bottle is capped. Now the fun begins. When the bottle is
squeezed, the diver dips down deeper into the bottle. When
pressure is released, it quickly rises back to the top. Why does
it happen? Added p