Quiz 2

A block of wood (SG = 0.96 ) is floating between a layer of gasoline and

water. What fraction of the wood is below the interface? (Hint: try not to
use the actual numerical value of the densities in one or other system of
units.)

Vwood ρwoodg = Vwater ρwaterg + Vgasoline ρgasolineg (1)

or

Vwood SGwood = Vwater + Vgasoline SGgasoline (2)

Also we know:
Vwood= Vwater + Vgasoline (3)

Combining Eqs. 2 and 3, we have:

Vwood SGwood = Vwater + (Vwood -Vwater) SGgasoline (4)

and rearranging we obtain:

Vwater SG wood − SG gasoline 0.96 − 0.72

= = = 0.857
VWood 1 − SG gasoline 1 − 0.72
(5)