Why Do Boats Float?

Cause and effect: The reason boats can float is, due to Archimedes Principle Archimedes principle, which states that the buoyant force on a submerged object is equal to the weight of the fluid that is displaced by the object. Buoyant force is a force that pushes up on an object with the same weight as the water displaced. For example a small object would displace a small amount of water equaling a small amount of buoyant force being produced. On the other hand, a large object would displace a lot of water equaling a large amount of buoyant force pushing on the object. An example of this would be a freighter, a freighter can weigh up to 600,000 tons. So a freighter will displace 600,000 tons of water equaling 600,000 tons of buoyant force being pushed up on the freighter.

Story: Have you ever wondered, "Why do boats float?" The reason why boats float is due to the Archimedes principle, well who is Archimedes? Archimedes happens to be a Greek Mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Back to his principle, the principle states that the buoyant force on a submerged object is equal to the weight of the fluid that is displaced by the object. Some now may be wondering what buoyant force is, buoyant force is a force, obviously, that pushes up on an object that has the same force as the weight of the water displaced. For example, a small object such as a paper boat displaces a small amount of water so the buoyant force pushing up on the object isn't that strong. But take a large object like a ferry, that ferry would displace a large amount of water producing a large amount of buoyant force. Using Archimedes principle on a 600,000 ton freighter we can figure out that the freighter displaces 600,000 tons of water, producing a lot of buoyant force.

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