A ferry boat is 4.0m wide and 6.0m long. When a truck pulls onto it, the boat sinks 4.00 cm in the water. What is the weight of the truck?
2007-05-28 14:15:54 · 2 answers · asked by lordhidetora 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
I'm going to make this simple; the area of the ferry = A = W X L; where W = 4 m and L = 6 m. So the volume the boat displaces when the truck is placed on it is V = W X L X h = 24 m^2 X .04 m = 9.6 m^3; where h = 4 cm or .04 m sunk.
Weight of the water displaced is W = rho X V; where rho is the weight density of water. Look up the weight density for water and plug in the numbers.
Note if you can't find a weight density, look up the mass density (RHO) and multiply it by g = 9.81 m/sec^2 to get rho, the weight density.
As long as a vessel is floating, any weight added to it will displace a volume of water that weighs exactly what the added weight weighs. This results because the added weight has to be exactly offset by additional buoyancy (the weight of the displaced water) for the vessel to stay afloat.
2007-05-28 15:16:52 · answer #1 · answered by oldprof 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The weight of the truck is equal to the weight of water it displaces.
6m x 4m x 0.04m = 0.96 m^3
Water weighs 9,810 N/m^3
So, the truck weighs 9,810 x 0.96 = 9,417.6 N
2007-05-28 22:05:14 · answer #2 · answered by lango77 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋