Changing values on scale when

[JaronDroder]

Test device
Alien Ware m15 R7

Operating System

Win 22H2

Browser
Chrome 128.0.6613.84

Problem description

For phetsims/qa#1136
I found this on buoyancy basics on the explore screen. I have been able to recreate the bug under oil and seawater, although it is easiest under oil. When a certain weight is reached on the scale under the liquid, the number indicating newtons can start to switch rapidly between other values after, usually by about a tenth of a newton. The Bug occurs for a lot of different N values, and depending on the value there are different rates at which the number will switch

Steps to reproduce

Go to explore, and select oil or sea water as the liquid for the pool (I found it easiest to do with oil).
After setting the scale at the bottom, place the block on the scale and raise the density or the volume. Around 350 N is where I found the bug to start, and it was easiest to just turn the density all the way up, although I found multiple weights caused the bug to occur.

Visuals

[samreid]

Prior work in phetsims/buoyancy#64, let's chat at an upcoming standup.

[zepumph]

Thanks for reporting. We discussed similar oscillations over in #357 and #241. We aren't able to handle this entirely because this is just noise in the p2 physics engine. Closing