Chapter : Pressure

Worksheet 3
Use g = 10 m/s2, 1atm = 100,000 Pa and assume water to be of uniform density
Exercise-1
1. An object dipped in water will seem to weigh less than it does in air. Is the force of gravity on
the object less in water than it is in air? Why does it seem lighter?

2. A boat has a mass of 135 kg and a volume of 0.15 m3. It is floating on the surface of a lake.
a. What is the buoyant force on the boat?
b. What weight of water is displaced by the boat?
c. What mass of water is displaced by the boat?
d. What volume of water is displaced by the boat?
e. What fraction of the boat is under water?
f. What is the density of the boat?

3. An object is completely submerged and has a volume of 2 m3. What is the buoyant force on
it? (Hint: volume displaced  mass displacedweight displaced buoyant force)

4. What is the buoyant force on a ship of mass 200,000 kg floating in the Atlantic? The density
of sea water is 1025 kg/m3. (this is a very easy problem)

5. A 20-pound toolbox displaces 5 pounds of water when totally submerged.

a. Will it float?
b. What is the buoyant force on the toolbox? What direction is the buoyant force?
c. How much will it seem to weigh when it is completely submerged?
d. What is the density of the toolbox? (It is easy to do this one if you think about the weight and
volume of the toolbox compared to the weight and volume of the displaced water.)

6. One pound pieces of pine, aluminum and lead are dropped over the side of a boat into a
deep fresh water lake. The pine floats while the aluminum and lead sink.
a. Is the buoyant force on the pine more than, less than or equal to one pound?
b. Is the buoyant force on the aluminum more than, less than or equal to one pound?
 c. Which has a greater buoyant force acting on it, the lead or the aluminum? (Hint: both
sink, but lead is more dense than aluminum)

7. An object has a density of 800 kg/m3 and is placed in water. What fraction of it is under
water? What percent of it is under water?
8. An object has a volume of 5 m3. When placed in water it will float with 3 m3 of it below the
surface. What is its density?
9. An object has a density of 1200 kg/m3 and is placed in water. What fraction of it is under
water? What percent of it is under water?
10. A box with a mass of 300 kg has a density of 600 kg/m3.
a. Will it float?
b. What is its volume?
c. What fraction of it is below water?
c. What is the buoyant force acting upon it (Two main ways to do this. One is really
easy)?

11. An object has a density of 2000 kg/m3 and a volume of 2 m3. The object is placed in water.
How much will it seem to weigh under water when submerged? (Hint: Find the weight of the
object and the buoyant force on it.) (This is a little tougher than the others.)
 Chapter 10 Worksheet 1: Density & Pressure

1. A block of wood with a mass of 112 g has a volume of 125 mL. (1 mL = 1 cm3)
a. What is the density of this wood in grams per cubic centimeter?

b. What is the density of the wood in kg/m3 ?

c. What is the specific gravity of the wood?

2. A sculptor is going to make a life-size granite statue of Mr. Holloway. She decides to start
with a right circular cylinder of granite. The base of the granite has a radius of 0.50 m and a
height of 2.0 meters. (ρ = 2,700 kg/m3)
a. What is the volume of the cylinder? (V = πr2h)

b. What is the density of the cylinder (Hint: what is it made of?)?

c. What is the mass of the cylinder in kg?

d. What is the weight of the cylinder in Newtons?

e. What is the weight of the cylinder in pounds?

f. How will the weight of the statue (not the whole cylinder) compare to Mr. Holloway?

3. A chunk of metal has a specific gravity of 3.80. What is its density in kg/m3?

4. A rectangular block of material with a specific gravity of 2.45 has a mass of 70 kg. The base
of the block has dimensions of 0.2 m x 0.3 m.
a. What is the area of the base?

b. What is the density of the block in kilograms per m3?

c. What is the volume of the material?

d. What is the weight of the block?

e. How much pressure does the block exert on the ground?

5. How much pressure is exerted on a floor by a 50-kg model standing momentarily on a single
spiked heel (area = 0.05 cm2)?

6. How much pressure is exerted by a 1500 kg elephant standing on one foot (area = 800 cm2)?

7. How do snowshoes work?

Exercise-2
1. For each of the following pairs of values, circle the larger value for a floating object. Box any
pairs that are always equal in this situation.
a. volume of the object vs. volume of water displaced
b. weight of the object vs. weight of water displaced
c. density of the object vs. density of water
d. weight of the object vs. buoyant force
e. buoyant force vs. weight of water displaced

2. For each of the following pairs of values, circle the larger value for a totally submerged object
that naturally sinks. Box any pairs that are always equal in this situation.
a. volume of the object vs. volume of water displaced
b. weight of the object vs. weight of water displaced
c. density of the object vs. density of water
d. weight of the object vs. buoyant force
e. buoyant force vs. weight of water displace
3. Each tire of an automobile has an area of 0.026 m2 in contact with the ground. The weight of
the automobile is 2.6 x 104 N. What is the pressure in the tires?
a. 3.1 x 106 Pa b. 6.5 x 106 Pa c. 2.5 x 105 Pa d. 1.0 x 106 Pa
4. A waterbed that is 1.5 m wide and 2.5 m long masses 108 kg. Assuming the entire lower
surface of the bed is in contact with the floor, what is the pressure the bed exerts on the floor?
a. 258 Pa b. 268 Pa c. 278 Pa d. 288 P
5. What pressure is exerted on a swimmer at the bottom of a 5.0 m deep swimming pool just
from the water (ignore atmospheric pressure)?
a. 0.5 atm b. 1.0 atm c. 1.5 atm d. 2.0 atm
exercise-3
1. A 50-kg person is walking on crutches and supports all her weight on the crutch tips, each of
which is circular with a radius of 2.0 cm. What total pressure is exerted on the floor? Express
your answer in N/cm2.
2. A plastic block of dimensions 2 cm x 3 cm x 4 cm has a mass of 30 g. What is its density in
g/cm3? What is its density in kg/m3? What is its specific gravity (relative density)?
3. Convert 1.5 atmospheres into pascals.
4. 50 cm3 of wood is floating on water and 50 cm3 of iron is totally submerged. Which has the
greater buoyant force acting on it? (Think of the amount of water they displace)
5. a. What is the weight of a 5-m3 piece of iron? (ρsteel = ρiron = 7800 kg/m3)
b. What is the weight of the water displaced by a submerged 5-m3 piece of iron?
c. How much would the iron seem to weight under water?
6. What is the density of a steel sphere with a radius of 0.02 meters?
7. a. What is the pressure due to water exerted on a submarine at a depth of 100 meters?
b. What is the absolute pressure on the sub?
8. What total amount of force acts on the top of a coin at the bottom of a five-meter deep pool if
the top side has a surface area of 2.8 x 10-4 m2?
9. A diver has a pressure gauge that reads zero when at the surface of a pond. When it shows
a pressure of 2.5 atm, approximately how deep is he?
11. An 10.0-kg raft is floating in a pond.
a. What is the buoyant force on it?
b. If the raft has a specific gravity of 0.1, what is its volume?
c. What percentage of the raft’s volume will be under water?
14. Why does the buoyant force always act upward?
15. What is Archimedes’ principle?
16. An object placed in water sinks. What can you say about the density of the object? How
does its weight compare to the buoyant force? How could you determine its volume?
Challenge: A floating object has a total volume of 1.0 m3 and 80% of it is below the surface of a
pool of water. What is the weight of the object in air? (This isn’t too tough if you approach it the
right way.)