Supersmart Student

Room 304
Mr. Humilier
4/11/2016

Object Buoyancy in Water

Object Buoyancy in Water

Before humans could begin understanding the world we know, they had to figure out how
to get to all the different places to see the world. Most of the world is covered by water, so
humans had to figure out how to get across it. Researchers estimate that humans have been

attempting to travel by water for almost 8,500 years (Schuster). To figure out how best to float
things on water, you have to understand how buoyancy works.
It seems like it would be simple, light things will float, heavy things will sink. Its not
quite that simple. Buoyancy means that something will float in water if there is more force
pushing up on the object, then there is pushing the object down (Dictionary.com). Things that
float are things that are positively buoyant. Something is positively buoyant if it has a smaller
ratio of mass to volume than the water that it is on top of (MIT Sea Grant). Under the right
circumstances, anything can float on water if it has a positive buoyancy ratio.
Some ships are extremely big. That doesnt mean they cant keep getting bigger though.
The larger or heavier something is, that simply means the more empty space you have to put
somewhere in the ship (Staroscik). Every time you add mass to something, you just have to
increase the volume so that the weight is spread out, and it will keep floating on water.
Differences in volume in comparison to mass, are measured in density. Density means
how much mass you can put into a certain amount of space (Dictionary.com). For example, if
you took me, and smashed me into a small 1x1x1 ft box, it would be the same mass, but a higher
density. Its the same me, in less space.
Based on the research Ive done, I think for the most part, lighter objects will float more
easily than heavier objects. I think this because most of the materials I will be using in my
experiment are lighter than a bottle of water, and thats not very much water. If its lighter than
water, it should float on water. In some cases, I believe heavier things will float too, but only
heavier things that have their mass spread out over a larger area, so that the water still push the
object more than the object pushes the water.

Bibliography
Dictionary.com LLC, 2016. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/buoyancy. 3/23/2016
Dictionary.com LLC, 2016. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/density. 3/23/2016
Angela M.H. Schuster. Worlds Oldest Ship. Volume 50, Number 4. Archaeological
Institute of America, July/August 1997.
archive.archaeology.org/9707/newsbriefs/hayling.html. 3/23/2016
Andrew Staroscik. Science Primer, 2016. http://scienceprimer.com/buoyancy. 3/23/2016
How Things Float. The Office of Naval Research, 2013.
http://www.seaperch.org/how_things_float. 3/23/2016
MIT Sea Grant. MIT Sea Grant College Program, 2008.
http://seaperch.mit.edu/science_bouyancy.php. 3/23/2016