Editing Cartesian diver (section)

{{Redirect|Cartesian devil|Descartes' philosophical thought experiment|Evil demon}}
{{Descartes}}
{{short description|Classic science experiment demonstrating the Archimedes' principle and the ideal gas law}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2021|article}} 
[[File:05. Епрувета што плива и тоне.ogv|thumb|right|Floating and sinking demonstration (Cartesian diver). The tube is filled with water and air. When pressing the bottle, the additional water enters the test tube, thus increasing the average density of the system tube-water-air, resulting with negative buoyancy and the tube sinks.]]

{{multiple image
 |header =  Dancing Cartesian Devil|total_width  = 300| image_gap  =  5
 |image1  =  Cartesian devil hg.jpg|caption1 = Hand blown glass toy from [[Lauscha]], [[Thuringian Forest]]
 |image2  = Tanzteufel – пляшущий чертик.webm|caption2 = In the bottle
}}
A '''Cartesian diver''' or '''Cartesian devil''' is a classic [[science]] experiment which demonstrates the principle of [[buoyancy]] ([[Archimedes]]' principle) and the [[ideal gas law]]. The first written description of this device is provided by [[Raffaello Magiotti]], in his book {{lang|it|Renitenza certissima dell'acqua alla compressione}} (Very firm resistance of water to compression) published in 1648. It is named after [[René Descartes]] as the toy is said to have been invented by him.{{Citation needed|date=May 2013}}

The principle is used to make small toys often called "water dancers" or "water devils". The principle is the same, but the eyedropper is instead replaced with a decorative object with the same properties which is a tube of near-neutral buoyancy, for example, a [[glassblowing|blown-glass]] bubble. If the tail of the glass bubble is given a twist, the flow of the water into and out of the glass bubble creates spin. This causes the toy to spin as it sinks and rises. An example of such a toy is the red "devil" shown here. 
The device also has a practical use for measuring the [[pressure]] of a [[liquid]].

Plastic divers were given away in American cereal boxes as a free toy in the 1950s, and "Diving Tony," a version of the toy modelled after [[Kellogg Company|Kellogg's]] [[Frosted Flakes]] mascot [[Tony the Tiger]], was made available in the 1980s.