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How Surface Area Affects the Buoyancy of Wood Essay example

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Introduction: The upward force on an object that is in water that allows it to float is called buoyancy. The buoyant force is always equal to the weight of the water displaced by the object in the water. This force was discovered by Archimedes, who was in his bathtub when he wondered why objects seemed lighter when he held them under the water. He found out that if an object is lighter than the weight of the water it displaces, it will float, but if it is heavier, it will sink. The force of buoyancy is important in many different areas, and especially in the making of ships. The surface area that is touching the water of the ship is very large, due to the shape of the hull, and that, beside the density of the ship, is what keeps the ship …show more content…

Likewise, the piece of wood with the surface area of 153cm² is the most buoyant, with a buoyancy of 0.606, because it has the most area to receive upward force upon.

Problems and Improvements:
A difficulty I encountered during this experiment was taking the measurements of newtons in the water. This was because it was hard to find the right place to put the spring balance. It could not be holding the piece of wood up completely, but it couldn’t be not supporting it at all '' both of these things would have created inaccurate results. However, I overcame this by spending time getting this balance right for each measurement, so I could collect the most accurate results as possible. There could still be minor inaccuracies in these results because of this problem; however a trend is still easily recognised in the results, so minor inaccuracies are only a small problem. This experiment could be improved by measuring the density of each of the pieces of wood as well as the surface area. Density, as well as surface area, also affects buoyancy, so the most accurate results would be gained by integrating density as a factor of this experiment.

Conclusion:
The results of this experiment did support my hypothesis, and confirm that for a constant mass, the larger the surface area of the piece of wood, the more buoyant it is.

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