FLOTATION

When you throw a pin in to water it sinks but a ship loaded heavy with cargo stays
floating in the sea. Have u ever thought what makes the difference? This section
explains the reason .
Suppose a body of the shape of a cube with side length 'a' placed on the land .It
obviously has some weight, say W that acts vertically downward. On land this force
is balanced by an upward reaction exerted by the ground on the body and the body
doesn't move as the net force acting on it is zero.

In the sea the body is to be supported by some force equal and opposite in
direction to the weight so that the rectangular prism is acted upon by a net force
of zero. This supporting force is the buoyancy. The buoyancy is caused by the
fluid pressure acting on the body that is fully or partially immersed in the
fluid. the fluid pressure is caused as the fluid displaced by the body immersed
tries to reclaim its initial position .This buoyancy force acts on any body of any
shape and is equal to the weight of the volume of the fluid that is displaced by
it . In other words it is equal to the weight of fluid of volume equal to the
immersed volume of the body .This is stated in the Archimedes' principle.

In order to understand more about this buoyancy lets suppose the cube shaped body
is slowly placed on water. The body starts immersing into the water as the net
force is its weight acting downward. As it gets immersed in the water the immersed
volume increases and so the buoyancy acting on the body increases. When the body
gets immersed sufficiently so that the net buoyancy equals weight it stops sinking
and floats at that position. Lets say this happens to our cube when it is immersed
to a height 'h' .Then ,
The buoyancy = weight of water displaced = (a*a*h)*( ρw)*g
ρw=density of water

ρb=density of the body

For the body to float,
Buoyancy =weight
i.e., a*a*h* ρw *g=a*a*a* ρb *g
i.e., h= a*(ρb/ρw)

The above result infers that the density of body should be less than the density
of the water for 'h' to be less than 'a' so that the body is not fully immersed .
Finally the below statement can be given for a body left in a fluid.
If density of body=density of the fluid then the body floats fully immersed.
If density of body partially immersed.
If density of body>density of the fluid then the body sinks completely.
A pin actually has a density greater than water and so it sinks down. Ships are
designed so that their total weight including cargo is less than the weight of
water they displace. The volume of this displaced water is the under water volume
of the floating ship.