24. The Titanic struck an iceberg presumably because the captain of the ship did not see it, which is reasonable. Approximately \( 7 / 8 \) of an iceberg is below the surface of the water. You can observe this same phenomenon when you place an ice cube in a glass of water. Most of the ice cube is below the surface of the water, but a small portion remains above the surface. This is because the ice cube displaces an amount of water that weighs slightly less than the weight of the ice cube. Another way to look at it is that water is denser than ice; that is, the same volume of water, say 1 cubic foot, weighs more than an equivalent volume of ice.
When you enter a swimning pool, the water rises because your body displaces a certain amount of the water equal to the volume of your body that's below the surface. You may notice that some people tend to float in a pool while others sink. People with a lower percentage of body fat (more muscle) tend to sink, whereas those with a higher percentage of body fat tend to float because water is denser than fat. When someone with a greater percentage of body fat is in a pool, the weight of the water the person displaces is greater than the weight of the person, so the person floats. On the other hand, a person with low body fat sinks (unless he takes a big breath of air) because the weight of the water he displaces is less than the weight of his body
If you sink to the bottom of a pool, you displace
A. an amount of water equal to your weight
B. an amount of water more than your weight
C. an amount of water less than your weight
D. more water than the volume of your body