How to Demonstrate Archimedes' Principle
Put a medium bowl inside a large bowl., Fill the medium bowl to the brim with water., Place a small, floatable wooden object on a gram scale and note the measurement., Place the wood in the water., Place another, separate container on the gram scale...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Put a medium bowl inside a large bowl.
Don't let it overflow. , A building block, a coaster, or a chunk of scrap wood will work provided that it’s small enough to fit in the medium bowl.
Do not confuse this with a regular scale.
Grams are a unit of mass, not weight.
Many cheap digital kitchen scales, for example, measure in grams. , It will float but some of the water will be “displaced” – i.e., will spill into the large bowl. , Leave it on the scale. , Be very careful not to spill. ,, The result is the mass of the spilled water. , They should be identical. , Find its mass, place it in the water, and then compare that with the mass of the displaced water.
They will not be the same.
Why? Because the rock was too dense to float in the water; in other words, the water didn’t have enough “buoyancy force” (i.e., ability to float an object) to hold up the rock, which sank.
Since the object could not remain buoyant, the buoyancy cannot equal the weight of the displaced water. -
Step 2: Fill the medium bowl to the brim with water.
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Step 3: Place a small
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Step 4: floatable wooden object on a gram scale and note the measurement.
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Step 5: Place the wood in the water.
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Step 6: Place another
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Step 7: separate container on the gram scale and note the measurement.
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Step 8: Remove the wood from the medium bowl
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Step 9: then remove the medium bowl from the large bowl.
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Step 10: Pour the spilled water from the large bowl into the container on the scale and note the measurement.
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Step 11: Subtract the mass of the container (Step 5) from the combined mass of the water and the container (Step 7).
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Step 12: Compare the mass of the spilled water with the mass of the wood (Step 3).
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Step 13: Repeat the experiment with a non-floatable object such as a rock.
Detailed Guide
Don't let it overflow. , A building block, a coaster, or a chunk of scrap wood will work provided that it’s small enough to fit in the medium bowl.
Do not confuse this with a regular scale.
Grams are a unit of mass, not weight.
Many cheap digital kitchen scales, for example, measure in grams. , It will float but some of the water will be “displaced” – i.e., will spill into the large bowl. , Leave it on the scale. , Be very careful not to spill. ,, The result is the mass of the spilled water. , They should be identical. , Find its mass, place it in the water, and then compare that with the mass of the displaced water.
They will not be the same.
Why? Because the rock was too dense to float in the water; in other words, the water didn’t have enough “buoyancy force” (i.e., ability to float an object) to hold up the rock, which sank.
Since the object could not remain buoyant, the buoyancy cannot equal the weight of the displaced water.
About the Author
Christina Harris
Experienced content creator specializing in hobbies guides and tutorials.
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