buoyancy of an object?

Question

i'm doing a physics project about boat design and how it effects the buoyancy of the boat and i was wondering how i should start it off? any ideas

Answer 1

Sure, empty out two soft drink aluminum cans of the same size and product. Smoosh one absolutely flat with your foot, leave the other intact.

Put a large mouth, liquid container on top of a plate. Fill up the container with water to the brim being careful to not spill water from the container into the plate.

Slowly put the smooshed can into the water, collecting the water that spills over in the plate. Empty the collected water in a liquid measuring cup and note how much liquid was collected.

Now do the same thing over again, with a refilled container, but with the fully intact empty can. Be sure to note how much water was collected for this experiment as well.

Now discuss why the amounts of water collected were significantly different between the smooshed can and the intact can. The smooshed can sinks, the intact can floats. That is a clue as to why the volume of water collected is different between the two experiments. What do these experiments say about the volume of a boat if it is to float and not sink. (Your one boat, the smooshed can, sank; the other, intact can, floated. Why is that?)

Answer 2

If you're talking buoyancy, you're talking about Archimedes Principle: The buoyant force of an object is equal to the weight of the fluid it displaces. The reason that wooden boats can float is that some of the boat displace a certain volume of water, and this volume of water = buoyant force. But, because the buoyant force is equal to the weight of the boat, the boat floats (only some of the boat is in the water). The buoyant force, acting up, equals the weight going down.
This is also why large metal ships can be built: just half of the boat needs to be submerged to displace enough volume of water equal to the entire weight of the ship.

Answer 3

Start off by talking about equilibrium.
Demonstrate that when the centre of gravity of the boat is higher than the centre of buoyancy of the boat, the boat becomes unstable and hence unsafe.
Bla Bla Bla and and it continues.

Answer 4

Buoyancy is the force equal to the weight of the volume of liquid displaced. 1 litre of fresh water still weighs 1kg no matter what depth you are at, even though the pressure exerted on it will change with depth. EDIT - lol, yes I agree MASS not weight.