Essay/Term paper: Buoyant forces

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Information Technology

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.