A physical paradox

This one should interest scuba divers and physicists alike. I learnt it from a physics lecturer about five years ago.

You have a perfectly rigid jar, which is sealed and filled with a perfectly incompressible liquid. Within the liquid, at the bottom of the jar is a small bubble filled with an ideal gas. Since the gas is less dense than the liquid, it is buoyant and must rise.

However, since the liquid at the bottom of the jar must support the liquid above it, the pressure at the bottom is higher than the pressure at the top. So as the bubble rises, it moves from a region of high pressure to a region of low pressure.

But, the bubble is filled with an ideal gas, so as the pressure on it drops, it must expand.

But, the bubble is confined in an incompressible liquid within a rigid jar, so there is nowhere for it to expand into.

Therefore, the bubble can't expand.

Therefore, the bubble can't rise.

What's gone wrong?

Beck's mistress wanks pig on telly outrage

That should send my hit-rate soaring. Read it all here. It's got pictures too.

Mark Holland huffs about the brewing scandal.

This caught my attention:

Loos — among celebrities acting as farmhands in the programme — donned rubber gloves after she was picked to stimulate the boar in a barn and collect its semen.

It took her ten minutes to fill a flask with nearly three quarters of a pint.

Three quarters of a pint! That's very nearly an armful!