Professional Documents
Culture Documents
GROUP RESEARCH # 3
BUOYANCY
MEE32
April 1, 2017
Buoyancy is a force exerted by a liquid or gas that opposes an object's weight. Buoyancy
can also be stated as the weight of displaced fluid. Pressure in a fluid increases with depth as a
result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus, an object submerged in a fluid, experiences greater
pressure at the bottom of the fluid than at the top. This difference in pressure results in a net force
that tends to accelerate an object upwards. The magnitude of that force is proportional to the
difference in the pressure between the top and the bottom of the column, and is also equivalent to
the weight of the fluid that would otherwise occupy the column, i.e. the displaced fluid. It is for
that reason that an object whose density is greater than that of the fluid that it is submerged in will
sink. Archimedes' principle allows for the experimental determination of density by providing an
easy and accurate method for determining the volume of an irregularly shaped object.
Figure 1
The buoyant force on a submerged object is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced. This
principle is useful for determining the volume and therefore the density of an irregularly shaped
object by measuring its mass in air and its effective mass when submerged in water. This
effective mass under water will be its actual mass minus the mass of the fluid displaced. The
difference between the real and effective mass therefore gives the mass of water displaced and
allows the calculation of the volume of the irregularly shaped object.
Figure 1
Figure 2
The volume of displaced fluid is equivalent to the volume of an object fully immersed in a
fluid or to that fraction of the volume below the surface for an object partially submerged in a
liquid.
In fluid mechanics, displacement occurs when an object is immersed in a fluid, pushing
out of the way and taking its place. The volume of the fluid displaced can then be measured,
and the volume of the immersed object can be deduced (the volume of the immersed object
will be exactly equal to the volume of the fluid displaced).
An object that sinks displaces an amount of fluid equal to the object's volume.
Figure 3
Figure 4
The buoyant force is due to the difference between the pressure at the bottom of the
object pushing up on it, and the pressure at the top pushing down. Thus:
where we assume that the top and bottom of the object have the same area A .
Previously, we showed that the pressure at the bottom of the cube is greater than that at the
top by gh , where is the density of the fluid and h is the height of the object.
Substituting this into the above equation gives:
B= ghA = Vg = mfg = wf
where V = hA is the volume of the displaced fluid and wf = mfg = Vg is the weight of
the displaced fluid. This proves Archimedes' principle:
B = wf
This result holds true for an object of any size, density or shape which is totally
submerged.
Note:
If an object is totally submerged, then Vf = Vo , where Vo is the total volume of the object.
The net upward force on a completely submerged object is therefore:
B - wo = ( - )Vog
where we have used the fact that the weight of the object wo = gVo . Thus, whether a
submerged object sinks or rises to the surface is determined by the relative magnitude
of and . If > , the object rises, if < , then the object sinks.
If an object is floating on the surface (neither sinking nor rising further) then the volume
that is below the surface can be determined by requiring the net force on the object to be
zero:
B - wo = gVf - wo = 0
where Vf is the volume of the object that is submerged (which equals the volume of
displaced fluid) and wo is the total weight of the object. If the object has volume Vo and
uniform density , then the fraction of the volume below the surface is:
= .
METHODOLOGY
Materials:
1. Weighing scale
2. 50mm3 wooden block
3. Strings
4. Container (Graduated cylinder)
5. Fluid (Water)
Procedures:
1. Determine the volume of the object in cm3 and take note the initial volume of water in the
container (e.g. graduated cylinder).
2. Place the object inside the container with water; take note the volume rise.
3. Subtract the new volume with the initial volume. This is the volume of the object.
4. Find the mass using the formula density, =m/v
5. Calculate the weight using w = mg
6. This value is the theoretical buoyant force determined directly from Archimedes Principle.
Call this value BF2.
7. You can calculate for the % difference between the experimental and theoretical values for
the buoyant force using % difference equation stated below.
|1 2 |
% = 100%
1
(1 + 2 )
2
REFERENCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy
http://physics.info/buoyancy/summary.shtml
https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/WindTunnel/Activities/buoy_Archimedes.html
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/fluids/buoyant-force-and-archimedes-
principle/a/buoyant-force-and-archimedes-principle-article
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/pbuoy.html