Question: Why is it that when a orange peel is on the orange it floats and when it is off it sinks?

Emma Bennett answered on 22 Jun 2011:

I understand why this must seem a little puzzling when you first try it. The answer lies behind the relative density of the the orange in water with and without the peel. Since the orange peel contains tiny air pockets then an unpeeled orange is less dense than water and will float. Remove this buoyant peel though and due to all the sugars and juices in the orange it becomes denser than water and will sink. If you try putting just the orange peel in the water you will see that it floats, it’s quite genius really,