dinosaur weights

[Helen Anderson <redledger@cableinet.co.uk>]

Thank you to all who responded to my query about 'dunking dinos'. 
However, I'm not sure that it matters to the experiment about the air
sacs, blood and bone bit.  I did the experiment with model carthorses,
etc to see how wrong the results would be - I mean they are just plastic
too, like the plastic dinosaurs, and horses have lungs too.  I suppose
that I was assuming a mammalian physiology which is probably not the
case.

If the results had come up way (weigh? tee hee) off, then I could ignore
the weights worked out in this way for dinosaurs.  Do you see what I
mean?  If the density bit was wrong for dinosaurs and water, it probably
isn't right for elephants and water either.  I wanted the model to sink
because that's how the experiments with the model dinosaurs had been
done.  However, I now know a great deal more than I ever imagined
possible about mass and density.  As SarahAnne points out - if I had a
realistic model, why bother with the water.  Just weigh it.  I guess I
just like messing about in other people's labs but I obviously like
going off to lunch more.

Thank you all for responding and your kind remarks,

Helen