Blog 8: fluids and buoyancy, I love ravioli ^-^

     So a few nights ago my parents decided to go to a bar to watch the UH football game. This left me at home and dinnerless. It was okay though because I was saved by one of my favorite dinners: (spinach and cheese) ravioli!!! 
     I heated the water (but I didn't watch it the whole time, sorry dad) and put the delicious, but cold from the refrigerator, pieces into the water. Then all I had to do was wait until they were ready. (For anyone who doesn't know, you can tell when pasta things are ready when they float.) It was then that I wondered why this was so.

<-----   Sinking pasta

Floating pasta    ------->

(sorry, I know they kinda look the same but trust me, they aren't)
  
     Then I realized that maybe the water had changed. Since the ravioli was cold at first, maybe it made the water cold. Cold water is less dense than hot water so the density of the ravioli at first, would have been more than the density of the water. Then, when the water was hot, it had a higher density so the ravioli could have floated.
     My other theory about this was that the ravioli had at first been more dense because they had just came out of the refrigerator. Then, as time went on, they could have absorbed some water and expanded. By doing this, the ravioli's volume would have increased and its density would have gone down. (density = mass/volume)
     Well, either way I'm not so sure what this had to do with my dinner being done, but it worked and I had a nice dinner.