Buoyant Forces Essay, Research Paper

Buoyant Forces

The purpose of this lab is to calculate bouyant forces of objects

submerged in water.

The first step in the lab was to measure the mass of a metal cylinder,

which was found to be 100g, and then to calculated it’s weight, which was .98

newtons. Then next step was to measure the apparent weight of the cylinder when

it is completely submerged in a bath of water using the formula Wa=ma*g , this

was found to be 88.5grams. Knowing these two numbers, the bouyant force that

the water places on the object can be calculated using the formula Fb=W-Wa ,

Wa=.8673n W=.98n Fb=.1127n

Part 2 of this lab consisted of weighing an empty cup, which was 44grams.

And then filling another cup up to a certain point the if any more water was

added, it would spill out of a little opening in the cup, the water spilled out

could be caught in the first cup. This is done so that the water spilled out

can be weighed and compared to a calculated weight of which the water should be.

After filling the cup, the cylinder was put into the cup , allowing the water to

spill out and be caught in the first cup. After the water had spilled out it

was weighed, which was 8.3g, converted to kg was .0083g. The weight of this

displaced water in Newtons was 0.081423n.

The percentage error with the buoyant force from step one was calculated

using, this resulted, using .114 for Fb and .0813 for Wdisp, a 28.7% error.

After completing this lab, it has become more apparent as to how to

calculate boyant forces and how that information can be used.