Word.ws English Dictionary

Supplee's paradox

Supplee's paradox proper noun: a physical paradox that arises when considering the buoyant force exerted on a relativistic bullet (or in a submarine) immersed in a fluid subject to an ambient gravitational field. If a bullet has neutral buoyancy at rest in a perfect fluid and is then launched at relativistic speed, observers at rest within the fluid would conclude that the bullet should sink, since its density will increase due to the length contraction effect. On the other hand, in the bullet's proper frame it is the moving fluid that becomes denser and hence the bullet would float.

Proper noun

Supplee's paradox

  1. A physical paradox that arises when considering the buoyant force exerted on a relativistic bullet (or in a submarine) immersed in a fluid subject to an ambient gravitational field. If a bullet has neutral buoyancy at rest in a perfect fluid and is then launched at relativistic speed, observers at rest within the fluid would conclude that the bullet should sink, since its density will increase due to the length contraction effect. On the other hand, in the bullet's proper frame it is the moving fluid that becomes denser and hence the bullet would float.

Synonyms of Supplee's paradox

Origin of Supplee's paradox

First formulated by James M. Supplee (1989).

Questions about Supplee's paradox

What does Supplee's paradox mean?
Supplee's paradox means a physical paradox that arises when considering the buoyant force exerted on a relativistic bullet (or in a submarine) immersed in a fluid subject to an ambient gravitational field. If a bullet has neutral buoyancy at rest in a perfect fluid and is then launched at relativistic speed, observers at rest within the fluid would conclude that the bullet should sink, since its density will increase due to the length contraction effect. On the other hand, in the bullet's proper frame it is the moving fluid that becomes denser and hence the bullet would float.
What part of speech is Supplee's paradox?
Supplee's paradox is a proper noun.

Words near Supplee's paradox in the dictionary

  1. supple jacks
  2. supple-jack
  3. supple-jacks
  4. suppled
  5. Supplee
  6. Supplee's paradox
  7. Supplees
  8. supplejack
  9. supplejacks
  10. supplely
  11. supplement

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Supplee's paradox (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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