FACULTY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
LAB REPORT
FLUID MECHANICS
Experiment 1: Force on submerged body
Date: XXXXXXX
NAME
XXXXXX
XXXXX

ID
XXXXX
XXXXX

Objective
To verify the Archimedes principle

Introduction
When a solid body is immersed in a fluid, it experiences a buoyancy force, in accordance
with Archimedes' principle. Archimedes principle states that a body wholly or partially
submerged in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal in magnitude to the weight of the
fluid displaced by the body. In this experiment,we submerge a circular cylinder in a
liquid and measure the buoyancy force acting on the cylinder. By comparing the
buoyancy force and the weight of the displaced liquid, we can then verify the Archimedes'
principle .

Apparatus
Hydrostatic precision balance

One set of weights

Archimedes cylinder

Cylindrical metal vessel

Beaker, 100 ml

Beaker, 250 ml

One bottle of glycerine, 250 ml

One bottle of Ethanol, 1000 ml

Experimental Procedures
1.The cylinder was suspended under the left balance dish, and the 100ml beaker was
placed on the other dish .The balance was tared by pouring water into the
beaker .Fine adjustment can be carried out by turning the tare screws at the ends
of the balance beams.

2.The weighing system was lifted up. The water-filled 250ml beaker was placed
below the cylinder and the system was lowered until the right balance dish
touches the base and the cylinder was completely immersed in the water. The
balance was tared by placing weights on the left balance dish. The required mass
was recorded as Mg.

3.The 250ml beaker was removed. The hanging cylinder was replaced with the empty
cylindrical metal vessel and the balance was tared by pouring water into the
100ml beaker.

4.The metal vessel was filled with water exactly up to the edge so that the water
surface is flush with the top edge of the vessel without visible meniscus. The
balance was tared by placing weights on the right balance dish. The mass of the
water was recorded as Mfl.
5.Steps (1) to (4) was repeated in order to find the corresponding values of Mg and Mfl
for glycerine and ethanol.

Results
Mg (g)

FB (N)

Mfl (g)

Water

74

0.72594

70

Weight of
fluid
displaced (N)
0.6867

Glycerine

92

0.90252

84

0.82404

Ethanol

61

0.59841

58

0.56848

M g=mass of Buoyant Force

M fl =mass of the fluid displaced by object

Equation :

Percentage Difference=

M fl M g
100
Mg

Water :
100
|7074
74 |

Percentage Difference=

5 . 41

Glycerine :
100
|8492
92 |

Percentage Difference=

8.70

Ethanol :
100
|5861
61 |

Percentage Difference=

4.92

Discussion
1. Archimedes' Principle explains that when a stationary body is completely

2.
3.

4.
5.

submerged or only partially submerged in a fluid, there will be a resultant force

acting on the body which is called buoyant force. At the same time the body will
displace a volume of fluid which equals to the body volume so that the fluid can
"hold" the body. Therefore, that shows the buoyant force is equal to the weight of
the displaced fluid.
From the experiment, we prove that buoyant force is equal to the weight of the
displaced fluid as the data we obtained for Mg and Mfl is very close in each fluid.
Based on the results, we could say that higher density fluid will give higher
buoyant force and higher weight of the displaced fluid. In the experiment, the
density sequence followed by :
Glycerine>Water> Ethanol
Besides, the Archimedes' cylinder must be fully immersed into the fluid so as to
avoid the cylinder is supported by the surface tension which can affect the data we
obtained.
Archimedes' cylinder has the same volume as the cylindrical metal vessel,
therefore the volume of fluid filled inside the vessel cavity is actually the volume
of fluid displaced by the cylinder.

Precaution
1. In order to reduce mistake, we must take note that the cylinder has to be fully
immersed into the fluid if not the cylinder will get the extra supporting force
which is the surface tension created by the fluid.
2. Students are advised to start the experiment with water and ethanol, the glycerine
should be the last due to the property of glycerine which is a bit sticky ( higher
viscosity ). If we start the experiment with glycerine, then we will probably mix
the glycerine with the next experimental fluids which we are going to do with.
This is really important that because once different fluids are mixed together, the
density is no longer pure enough and this surely will affect the magnitude of the
buoyancy force that we are going to compute
3. In order to get a more accurate result, lower the whole beam system while
conducting the experiment. The purpose is to lower the center of gravity of the
whole system in order to enhance the stability of the beam balance. The greater
the stability is, the easier for us to get an accurate result.
4. The smallest weight of the load is only 1 gram, theoretically if we want to get a genuine
accurate result, we should use the smaller scale of weights which can give us a more
accurate result.

Conclusion:
The Archimedes principle is successfully proven as the data we obtained for Mg and Mfl is
very close in each fluid and the calculated percentage difference value is very small in of each
fluid From the result, we know that the glycerine will give the biggest buoyancy force and the
ethanol will give the lowest buoyancy force; we can declare that the glycerine has the biggest
density and the ethanol has the lowest density.