Archimedes' Principle

Archimedes' principle states that the upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, whether fully or partially submerged, is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces and acts in the upward direction at the centre of mass of the displaced fluid. Archimedes' principle is a law of physics fundamental to fluid mechanics. It was formulated by Archimedes of Syracuse.

In On Floating Bodies, Archimedes suggested that (c. 250 BC):

Any object, wholly or partially immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.

Practically, Archimedes' principle allows the buoyancy of an object partially or fully immersed in a liquid to be calculated. The downward force on the object is simply its weight. The upward, or buoyant, force on the object is that stated by Archimedes' principle, above. Thus, the net upward force on the object is the difference between the buoyant force and its weight. If this net force is positive, the object rises; if negative, the object sinks; and if zero, the object is neutrally buoyant - that is, it remains in place without either rising or sinking. In simple words, Archimedes' principle states that, when a body is partially or completely immersed in a fluid, it experiences an apparent loss in weight that is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the immersed part of the body.

Consider a cube immersed in a fluid, with its sides parallel to the direction of gravity. The fluid will exert a normal force on each face, and therefore only the forces on the top and bottom faces will contribute to buoyancy. The pressure difference between the bottom and the top face is directly proportional to the height (difference in depth). Multiplying the pressure difference by the area of a face gives the net force on the cube – the buoyancy, or the weight of the fluid displaced. By extending this reasoning to irregular shapes, we can see that, whatever the shape of the submerged body, the buoyant force is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced.

The weight of the displaced fluid is directly proportional to the volume of the displaced fluid (if the surrounding fluid is of uniform density). The weight of the object in the fluid is reduced, because of the force acting on it, which is called upthrust. In simple terms, the principle states that the buoyant force on an object is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object, or the density of the fluid multiplied by the submerged volume times the gravitational constant, g. Thus, among completely submerged objects with equal masses, objects with greater volume have greater buoyancy.

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