Buoyancy

Buoyancy is the factor responsible for things to float on the fluid or water when immersed into it. And buoyancy is thought to be the force that acts against the direction of gravity or perhaps against the weight of the object that is immersed in the fluid. This concept was discovered by one of the renowned scientists, Archimedes about 2000 years ago who went on to prove that it is the upward force experienced by the object and is equivalent to the weight of fluid displaced by the object on being immersed in the fluid.

For instance, take the case of water which is fluid and a plastic ball which is being immersed into the water. Definitely the plastic ball will float on the water making it, positively buoyant. Perhaps it that was an iron ball, it would have sunk making it negatively buoyant. And Archimedes’ principle was that “any object, wholly or partly immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object”.

The working of the concept

If the weight of the object which is immersed in a fluid is greater than the weight of the fluid displaced by that object, then the object will definitely sink in that particular fluid. Perhaps the weight of the object is less than the weight of fluid displaced then the object floats. Pertaining to buoyancy to density, if the object placed in the fluid, the object floats. Hence the form of an object plays insignificant role in deciding whether an object will float or sink.

Wide range of applications for different fields

The applications of buoyancy can be found in most of the fields, today particularly in making of the boats, ships and sea planes which are designed accordingly to float on the water and not sink. This principle is also used cleverly in the cases of submarines using ballast tanks to float, appear and disappear when it is necessary.

The usage has extended and certain techniques are adapted even in the water related sports such as swimming and scuba diving. People use buoyancy technique to float on the water when swimming and especially when lying on the back, swimmer is able to hold on to his breathe for as long as possible. And scuba diving involves dealing with a lot of buoyancy pertaining issues because the divers are required to deal with hovering, sinking and floating under water as and when needed.

Questions:

• What is buoyancy?
• List down some of the uses of buoyancy.