Some objects, when placed in water, float, while others sink, and still others neither float nor

sink. This is a function of buoyancy. We call objects that float, positively buoyant. Objects that sink are called negatively buoyant. We refer to object that neither float nor sink as neutrally buoyant. The idea of buoyancy was summed up by Archimedes, a Greek mathematician, in what is known as Archimedes Principle: Any object, wholly or partly immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object. Archimedes principle works for any fluid, but to divers, they are mainly concerned with two different fluids: fresh water, and salt water. We need to think of fresh water and salt water as two different fluids because equal volumes of fresh water and salt water do not weigh the same. For example, a cubic foot of fresh water weighs approximately 62.4 lbs, while a cubic foot of salt water weighs approximately 64 lbs. The extra weight is because of the dissolved minerals in salt water. Lets witness an application of the archimedes principle ------------cut----------The materials we need are 3 cups, 3 eggs and salt. Fill the 3 glasses with equal amount of water and place a fresh egg in one of the glasses, lets observe what happen. We can see that the egg sinks. On the second cup, put 4 teaspoons of water and stir it up. Place another egg and observe what happen. As you can see, the egg floats. On the final glass, put 4 tsp of salt and stir it up and pour out some of the salt water. Now place an egg in the water. Slowly and carefully pour fresh water into the glass of salt water and watch as the egg sinks down till the middle. How can we explain these? The egg sank on the first cup because it doesnt displace enough water making the egg more dense than the water around it. It created an unbalanced force which sends the egg to the bottom of its container. This force is called the buoyant force. The egg is negatively buoyant. The egg floated on the second cup because when we add salt to water and stir, the salt crystals break down into molecules and fill in the holes inbetween the water molecules. The solution now has more mass in the same space or volume, which changes the density of the water. When we add the egg to the salt water, it displaced the same amount of water but that space has more molecules in it thats why the egg becomes less dense then the salt water around it. The egg is positively buoyant. On the third cup, the egg stayed in the middle because when we slowly add fresh water to salt water, the less dense fresh water floats on top of the more dense salt water that created a density column of water. The egg sank through the less dense fresh water and floated on the more dence salt water. The egg is neutrally buoyant. -----------cut------------To summarize all these, Archimedes principle relates buoyancy to displacement. Any floating object displaces its own weight of fluid.