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Example 1
The key to many buoyancy problems is to treat the buoyant
force like all the other forces we've dealt with so far. What's
the first step? Draw a free-body diagram.
A basketball floats in a bathtub of water. The ball has a mass
of 0.5 kg and a diameter of 22 cm.
(a) What is the buoyant force?
(b) What is the volume of water displaced by the ball?
(c) What is the average density of the basketball?
(a) To find the buoyant force, simply draw a free-body
diagram. The force of gravity is balanced by the buoyant
force:
F = ma
Where,
P = pressure and
A = Area.
In terms of Volume, Height and area, it is given by
Fb - mg = 0
Fb = mg = 4.9 N
(b) By Archimedes' principle, the buoyant force is equal to the
weight of fluid displaced.
Fb = Vdispg
Vdisp= Fb/g = 4.9/(1000*9.8) = 5 x 10-4 m3
(c) To find the density of the ball, we need to determine its
volume. The volume of a sphere is:
V = (4/3)r3
With r = 0.11 m, we get:
volume of basketball = V = 5.58 x 10-3 m3
The density is mass divided by volume:
= m/V = 0.5 / 5.58 x 10-3 = 90 kg/m3
Another way to find density is to use the volume of displaced
fluid. For a floating object, the weight of the object equals the
buoyant force, which equals the weight of the displaced fluid.
mg = Fb = fluid Vdisp g
m = object V, so:
object V = fluid Vdisp
Factors of g cancelled. Re-arranging this gives, for a floating
object:
SOLUTION
The weight of the ball is
SOLUTION:
(a) The cube's weight is
Fb = gV
Fb,empty = ghempty A
Fb = 14.7 kgm/s2
Fb = 14.7 N
Fb,empty = 52.92 N