Archimedes Principle Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Archimedes Principle - Lab Report Example Below are tabulated results indicating numerous physical properties of different materials determined through a typical Archimedes Principle experiment. Admittedly, both weight and density are physical properties of matter. Density is calculated by finding the ratio of a material’s mass to that of the material’s volume. Contrarily, weight is the mass of a material in a particular gravitational field. In the calculations, weight was obtained when mass was multiplied by 9.98; the earth’s acceleration due to gravity. In this context, I believe that weight is a variable property which changes with a corresponding change in the external force of gravitational acceleration. However, density is a rather static variable in matter. Density is derived from the unchanging parameters of mass and volume. On the other hand, weight is derived from the unchanging parameter of mass and the changing parameter of gravitational acceleration (Smith 28). Therefore, the experiment’s computations indicate that density describes a material more accurately than weight. When an object is suspended in air, gravity is the only major force acting on that object. However, an object immersed in water is acted upon by two major forces; gravity, and buoyant force. Gravity pulls an immersed object down while buoyant force pushes the immersed object upwards. Consequently, a portion of the object’s actual weight is neutralized by the upward force of buoyancy, thus causing an immersed object to weigh less (Smith 31). Technically, an object does not lose the same amount of weight when immersed in a liquid other than water. First, water and other liquids have different densities. Buoyancy of objects is determined by the ration of an object’s density to that of the reference liquid. Since buoyant forces determine the weight of an immersed object, then the magnitude of buoyant forces acting on a water-immersed object are not necessarily equal to the