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Clarifying the misconception about the principle of floatation

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2014 Phys. Educ. 49 523
(http://iopscience.iop.org/0031-9120/49/5/523)
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Papers
iopscience.org/ped

Clarifying the misconception

about the principle of floatation
ManojKYadav
National Human Resource Development Academy, Janakpur Dham, Nepal
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box-516, 75120 Uppsala,
Sweden
E-mail: mkyadav3@yahoo.com

Abstract
This paper aims to clarify the misconception about the violation of the
principle of floatation. Improper understanding of the definition of displaced
fluid by a floating body leads to the misconception. With the help of simple
experiments, this article shows that there is no violation of the principle of
floatation.

1.Introduction
There is currently widespread media coverage in
Nepal reporting that Archimedes principle has
been challenged by Bhabindra Kunwar [14].
This will impact many physics students. The
aim of this paper is to clarify the misconception
behind the argument challenging Archimedes
principle. Before going into detail about the
misconception and its clarification, it is worth
reviewing Archimedes principle of floatation
in brief. According to the principle of floatation
[5], any floating object displaces fluid equal to its
own weight. Thus, the weight of a floating body is
always equal to the weight of the fluid displaced
by the floating body. We will illustrate its verification in the next paragraph. First, we discuss the
various states of buoyancy, and their consequence
in determining whether a body will float or sink
in a fluid. Let us consider three solid spherical
balls, A, B and C, made of three different materials. Suppose the density of A is less than that of
water, the density of B is equal to the density of
water, and the density of C is greater than the density of water, and that the three balls are released
from a point inside the water. The states of the
balls immediately after the release are shown in
figure1(a).

An object having an average density smaller

than the density of a fluid experiences buoyant force (upthrust) greater than its own weight
when the object is placed inside the fluid. Such
an object is said to have positive buoyancy [6].
An object with positive buoyancy (as in the case
of ball A) inside a fluid moves upward and finally
floats on the surface of the fluid, with its partial
volume immersed inside the fluid. The upthrust
on an object having average density equal to the
density of a fluid is equal to the weight of the
object. Such an object is said to have neutral
buoyancy. An object with neutral buoyancy (as
in the case of ball B) floats inside the fluid with

Figure 1. Different states of buoyancy. WA, WB, WC

and UA, UB, UC represent the weights and upthrust for
balls A, B and C, respectively.

0031-9120/14/050523+3$33.00 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd

P h y s i c s E d u c at i o n 49 (5)

523

M K Yadav

Figure 2. The principle of floatation.

Figure 3. Illustration of the problem of misconception.

its whole volume immersed inside the fluid. An

object with average density larger than the density of a fluid experiences upthrust that is less
than the weight of the object. The object is said to
have negative buoyancy (as in the case of ball C).
Such an object moves downward and finally settles at the bottom surface. Figure1(b) illustrates
the final states of the balls. We have seen that an
object with positive buoyancy (ball A) or neutral
buoyancy (ball B) floats and an object with negative buoyancy (ball C) sinks. Since this article is
about floatation, only the cases of balls A and B
will be considered.
Next, we will attempt to verify the principle
of floatation. Imagine the weights of balls A and
B are WA and WB, respectively. Now, take a glass
completely filled with water and place the glass
in an empty clean tub, as shown in figure 2(a).
Ball A is gently placed on the surface of the water
contained in the glass. It displaces some water
and floats on the surface, as shown in figure2(b).
The weight of the displaced water collected in the
tub is then found out. Let the weight be W1. The
experiment is repeated for ball B, as shown in figure2(c). Again the weight of the water displaced
by ball B can be found. Let the weight be W2. It
turns out that WA = W1 and WB = W2. In either
case, the weight of the floating body is equal to
the weight of water displaced, which verifies the
principle of floatation.

students at this point as to whether the second

glass with the stone will float or not, many of them
will say no. However, the second glass does float.
The misconception arises from the fact that the
total weight of the floating body (glass plus water)
in this case is greater than the weight of the water
in the first glass, and still the second glass with the
stone floats. This leads some people to believe that
the principle of floatation is violated.

2.Misconception
Now, let us consider a light paper glass containing
50g of water, as shown in figure3(a), and another
identical glass containing a small piece of stone.
Suppose that the total mass of the glass and the
stone is 100g. The second glass containing a piece
of stone is gently placed inside the first glass, as
shown in figure 3(b). If the question is asked to
524

P h y s i c s E d u c at i o n

3.Explanation
In the above experiment, one mistakes the concept of displaced fluid. The displaced fluid comes
from the space occupied by the portion of the
floating body inside the fluid. Thus, the volume
of the fluid displaced is equal to the portion of
the volume of the floating body inside the water.
To find the weight of the displaced fluid, one has
to consider the volume of the fluid equal to the
volume of the portion of the floating body inside
the fluid. In the case of the floating glass containing the stone, the volume of the floating body
inside the water is shown by the shaded region
in figure 3(c). If we calculate the weight of the
water, considering the volume of the water indicated by the shaded region, then it will certainly
be equal to the weight of the floating glass containing the stone. Thus, the weight of the water
displaced in this case is still equal to the weight of
the floating body, and hence there is no violation
of the principle of floatation. A similar explanation will be applicable for a floating body with
neutral buoyancy.
In summary, a proper understanding of the
fluid displaced by a floating body has been demonstrated. The experiment used to clarify that
there is no violation of the principle of floatation
can also be performed in the classroom to explain
the principle of floatation.
September 2014

Clarifying the misconception about the principle of floatation

Received 16 April 2014, in final form 7 May 2014
Accepted for publication 3 June 2014
doi:10.1088/0031-9120/49/5/523

[5] Archimedes Principle http://wikipedia.org/wiki/

Archimedes_principle
[6] Neutral Buoyancy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Neutral_buoyancy

References

[1] Amazing Results in Physics http://prcphysics.

wordpress.com
[2] How is the Archimedes Principle Wrong? http://
howisthearchimedesprinciplewrong.blogspot.com
[3] Physics Reformation Campaign http://aboutphysicsreformationcampaign.blogspot.com
[4] Is There a Flaw in Archimedes Principle?
http://xnepali.net/movies/is-there-a-flaw-in-
archimedes-principle-ask-bhabindra

Manoj K Yadav has around 10 years

experience teaching undergraduates
at various colleges in Nepal. He is
currently a postdoctoral fellow at
Uppsala University in Sweden.

September 2014

P h y s i c s E d u c at i o n

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