Using the overflow property with a value different to visible

img {
  float:left;
  width:100px;
  margin:0 10px;
}
.div1 {
  background:#f1f1f1;
  /* does not create block formatting context */
}
.div2 {
  background:#f1f1f1;
  overflow:hidden;
  /* creates block formatting context */
}

https://jsfiddle.net/MadalinaTn/qkwwmu6m/2/

Using the overflow property with a value different to visible (its default) will create a new block formatting context. This is technically necessary — if a float intersected with the scrolling element it would forcibly rewrap the content.

This example that show how a number of paragraphs will interact with a floated image is similar to this example, on css-tricks.com.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/overflow