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What if you dropped a bowling ball in the Mariana Trench? Watch the latest What If? video in collaboration with @minuteearth.bsky.social! www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYoH...

My question is water pressure: Does the water get denser, changing the apparant weight of the bowling ball? If so, wouldn’t the balls slightly over 12lbs find equilibrium at specific depths?

Wikipedia says that seawater is not compressible, so differences in pressure don’t lead to changes in density. Temperature and salinity affect seawater density. Colder water is denser than warmer water, and saltier water is denser than freshwater. The topic to look for is ‘ocean stratification’.