The Submerged Egg Buoyancy Bench: The Sea and the Ledger

THE SUBMERGED EGG BUOYANCY BENCH · 10 OCTOBER 2002, W-291
A white egg, 40 × 60 m by eye, 20 to 50 ft down by the statement, motionless about five minutes
A body that holds station under the surface has two exits: it weighs what the water weighs, or something holds it
the buoy, the atlas, the casts, the equation of state and the optical tables are measured
the crown's depth, the water type, the hull, the nozzle, the mismatch are dials: every figure follows them
the egg is drawn as a spheroid and coloured by the contrast law; nothing is fitted
set the crown · pick the water · price the exits · run five minutes · look through the water · open the file

Evidence

fact ⇄ what kind of claim · live

Graves's statement and the BAASS interview of 27 August 2009: 10 October 2002, daylight, W-291, an F-14D at about 5,000 ft with about 500 yards of lateral separation; a white or opaque egg about 40 × 60 m, about 20 to 50 ft down, motionless for about five minutes over about three passes; edges not clear, 'almost like a distortion from extremely hot water'; 'no apparent disturbance' on the surface; no sensors used; nothing reported

the record's words (Future Visions ch. 31, pp. 203 to 205); every figure on the bench starts from them

REPORTED

Buoy 46025 on 10 October 2002: over the day 0.52 to 0.70 m at 16.67 s and wind 0.7 to 5.6 m/s, through the daylight hours water 17.2 to 17.4 °C at 2 m; buoy 46047 inside W-291 silent from 25 September to 17 October

NDBC's file for the year: the nearest buoy that spoke that day, about 155 km north of Tanner Banks

MEASURED

The October water column: the World Ocean Atlas at the Tanner Banks cell, and CalCOFI's four casts of 11 to 15 November 2002, 27 to 91 km away, with Secchi depths of 18, 19 and 24 m

the month's climatology, and the cruise five weeks later; the profile is a preset

MEASURED

UNESCO 1983 for the density, Jerlov 1976 and Solonenko & Mobley 2015 for the water types, Quan & Fry 1995 for the index, Lamb's k-factors for the added mass, Preisendorfer 1986 for the contrast law

published tables and equations, each transcribed with its source named; the tune reproduces the equation of state's printed check values and the added mass's sphere limit

MEASURED

The volume of a spheroid, ρ g V, a shell's thickness, a jet's momentum, a cable's cross-section, the drift equation, the line of sight from 5,000 ft and 500 yards

arithmetic on the record's numbers; no parameter is fitted

EXACT

The crown's depth within the band, which profile, the water type and wavelength, the reflectances and the threshold, the hull material, the nozzle, the cable's strength, C_d, the mismatch, the hour

choices, shown as dials; every finding is quoted across their range

MODELLED

Whether the body was a density-matched hull, something held down, or something the record does not name

the one question this bench refuses to close for you

READING

…

…