Law of Flotation

Have you ever wondered what causes things to float on water or liquid?

Well, floating is caused by an upthrust force that act on the material and interestingly there's a LAW that governs whether an object floats or not it is called the LAW of Flotation.

"Law of flotation is an application of Archimedes' principle"

When a piece of wood of density more than water is placed on water, it sinks and displaces some water.

As it sinks, more and more water is displaced. This increases the buoyant force as the the buoyant force is equal to the weight of water displaced.

The wood will sink until the buoyant force equal its weight.

Therefore,

The law of flotation states that a floating object displaces its own weight of the fluid in which it floats.

i.e.

Weight of floating object= weight of fluid displaced

Mass of floating object = mass of fluid displaced

Any changes in the density of the surrounding liquid affects the level in which an object floats.

Thus, you have to remember that an object will DISPLACE the amount of water or liquid that is equal to its own mass in order to float.