NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

551 MF Jhocson Street, Sampaloc, Manila

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
FLUID MECHANICS LABORATORY

NAME: ________________________________________ DATE: _____________________

GROUP # _________________ SECTION: _________________

EXPERIMENT # 6
BUOYANCY
I. OBJECTIVES:
1. To determine the relative density or specific gravity of an object floating in
a liquid.
2. To determine the buoyant force exerted by an object.
II. APPARATUS:
Block of wood Pan or Container Weighing scale
Ruler Ice cube/ block of ice Other fluid such as CCl4, Oil,etc

III. THEORY:
The buoyancy of a body immersed in a fluid is that property which will determine
whether the body will sink, rise or float. Archimedes established the analysis over 2000
years ago. The results are the two laws of buoyancy discovered by Archimedes in the
third century B.C.:
1. A body immersed in a fluid experiences a vertical buoyant force equal to the
weight of the fluid it displaces.
2. A floating body displaces its own weight in the fluid in which it floats.
Buoyant force can be expressed as: BF = W air - W liquid = γ x displaced volume
Summation forces vertical: ∑ 𝐹𝑣 = 0 ↑ +

𝐵𝐹 = 𝑊

𝛾𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑 𝑥 𝑉𝑑 = 𝛾𝑜𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑥 𝑉𝑜𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡

𝑠𝑝.𝑔𝑟.𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡
𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑡, 𝐷 = 𝑥H
𝑠𝑝.𝑔𝑟.𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑑
 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
551 MF Jhocson Street, Sampaloc, Manila
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
FLUID MECHANICS LABORATORY

Figure 1 – Illustration of a
floating body in a liquid.
The shaded portion is the
displaced volume.

If the object of height H has a constant cross sectional area such as vertical
cylinder, blocks, etc, then value of the draft can be computed from the derived
equation shown above.

Reference: Fluid Mechanics by White and Al Shemmeri

IV. PROCEDURE:
1. Set up the apparatus.
2. Measure the dimension of the rectangular block.
3. Fill the pan with water.
4. Place the block in the water. Level in the upright position and measure the
height of the submerged portion of the block and label it as “d” or draft
section.
5. Using the principle of buoyancy, compute the relative density of the block.
6. For some variation, add an additional weight (placing some object on top
of the block with known weight).
7. Additional variation use ice block or ice cube instead of block of wood or
use other fluid instead of water.
8. Record/tabulate the recorded weight (W), draft (D), and height (H) of the
object and compute the specific gravity of the object using Archimedes’
law of Buoyancy.

V. DATA & RESULTS

Fluid: _________________
Object used: ___________
Object’s cross-sectional area: _______
 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
551 MF Jhocson Street, Sampaloc, Manila
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
FLUID MECHANICS LABORATORY

BLOCK OF WOOD
OBJECT’S
DEPTH OF DRAFT TOTAL BUOYANT RELATIVE DENSITY OF
TRIAL
FLUID (D) HEIGHT FORCE (BF) LIQUID
(H)
1
2
3
BLOCK OF WOOD AND STONE
OBJECT’S
DEPTH OF DRAFT TOTAL BUOYANT RELATIVE DENSITY OF
TRIAL
FLUID (D) HEIGHT FORCE (BF) LIQUID
(H)
1
2
3

VI. COMPUTATIONS
 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
551 MF Jhocson Street, Sampaloc, Manila
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
FLUID MECHANICS LABORATORY
VII. DRAWING:
 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
551 MF Jhocson Street, Sampaloc, Manila
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
FLUID MECHANICS LABORATORY
VIII. OBSERVATION & CONCLUSION:
 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
551 MF Jhocson Street, Sampaloc, Manila
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
FLUID MECHANICS LABORATORY
IX. PICTURES