Buoyant force equals the weight of displaced fluid in a stationary fluid of uniform density.
Difficulty
Beginner
Read time
5 min
Prerequisites
Basic algebra and consistent SI units
Source
OpenStax, College Physics 2e, §11.7 (Paul Peter Urone and Roger Hinrichs)Textbook reference retained from the OpenFormulaGraph dataset; adaptation credits and license are provided below.
Adapted from OpenFormulaGraph, under CC BY 4.0.
FormuLab adapted the notation, explanations, assumptions, and topic placement, and expanded the numerical check into a worked example.
Buoyant force equals the weight of displaced fluid in a stationary fluid of uniform density. The displaced volume is the submerged volume, which can be less than the object’s total volume for a floating body.
| Symbol | Meaning | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Upward buoyant-force magnitude | ||
| Fluid density | ||
| Displaced fluid volume | ||
| Gravitational acceleration |
Balance buoyancy against an object’s weight.
Estimate the fluid’s upward support.
An immersed object displaces 0.00200 m³ of water with density 1000 kg/m³. Find the buoyant force using g = 9.80 m/s².
Textbook reference retained from the OpenFormulaGraph dataset; adaptation credits and license are provided below.
Adapted from OpenFormulaGraph, under CC BY 4.0.
FormuLab adapted the notation, explanations, assumptions, and topic placement, and expanded the numerical check into a worked example.
Assumptions
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