Archimedes’ Principle & Buoancy

A little history…
In the first century BC, the Roman architect Vitruvius related a
story of how Archimedes, the Greek scientist, discovered that
a goldsmith had tried to cheat King Hiero II…
The king had given the goldsmith an exact amount of gold to
melt down and make into a crown. When the crown was made
and returned to the king, the king was suspicious that the
goldsmith had stolen some of the gold and replaced
it with an equal weight of another metal.

The king turned to Archimedes for help…

In Vitruvius’s own words:
Archimedes happened to go to the
bath, and on getting into a tub
observed that the more his body sank
into it the more water ran out over the
tub.
Archimedes realised that this helped
explain the question about the crown.
He jumped out of the bathtub and
rushed home naked, crying with a
loud voice …
‘Eureka, Eureka.’ (Meaning ‘I have
found it, I have found it’)
So, what, exactly, had he found?
He realized that if the bath were completely filled in the
beginning, the volume of water that would overflow (that was
displaced) would have to equal the volume of the person or
object placed into the water!!
He now had a way to measure the volume of the irregularly-
shaped crown. If another metal had been used, with a different
density, then the volume of the crown would change.
He discovered that the crown displaced more water than a
chunk of gold of equal weight did. Its volume was greater
because it contained another metal, less dense than gold!!
 Now Something About FORCES
• Imagine a very light, thin-
walled bag filled with water
that is in equilibrium in a
pool. Its density is 1.
• Clearly, there must be an upward force exerted on
the bag to balance its weight (the pull of gravity down)
• This upward force is actually the
sum of all the forces acting on the
object due to the surrounding water,
and is called the bouyant force.
 Archimedes’ Principle
The magnitude of the buoyant force is given
by Archimedes’ Principle. It states that…

… a body fully or partially submerged in a

fluid is “buoyed up” by a force that is equal
to the weight of the displaced fluid.
 How do ships float?
Obviously the density of a
metal boat or a “concrete
canoe” is greater than the
density of water, but they float
because they contain a large
amount of empty space.
Because of their shape and
volume they displace enough
water to balance their own
weight.
How do Submarines Dive & Surface?
A sub has “ballast tanks” that can be filled with water or air.
• To dive, a sub must become heavier, so the tanks allow water
in while venting air out.
• To surface, a sub must become lighter. A supply of
compressed air on the sub is used to force water back out of
the ballast tanks.