Didactical leaflet
Ammonite sp.
“A body immersed in fluid receives a push towards the top equal to the weight of the moved fluid”. So says the law of Archimedes Siracusano. So true, that the same rule makes a submarine of many tons able to sink and re-emerge. As often happens, human inventions are none other than the achievement of what already exists in nature. In fact, also certain animals use the same principle to move vertically in water. In nature the most similar animal to our submarine is a mollusc of very ancient origins, the Nautilus, that are extinct, the ammonites who lived millions of years ago, were the last in the unlimited series of animals similar to it. The ammonites, to sink, inflated a part of their body, expanding themselves by producing a certain gas by themselves which filled full areas, the submarine however emits water in its tanks.
To go up the ammonite shrinks the inflated part of its body, leaving more space for the gas, instead the submarine lets out water. When in the ammonites or submarine, there's more air then gas, they are lighter so that the weight (or the push) that they get from the moved liquid is sufficient to push them upwards. When the tanks contain less gas then air, they are heavier, for this reason their weight (the push) is not sufficient to push them upwards and they sink. To keep still in mid water, they find their balance between their weight and the weight of the moved liquid. Archimedes was right!
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