One day when you come into physics lab you find several plastic hemispheres floating like boats in a tank of fresh water. Each lab group is challenged to determine the heaviest rock that can be placed in the bottom of a plastic boat without sinking it. You get one try. Sinking the boat gets you no points, and the maximum number of points goes to the group that can place the heaviest rock without sinking. You begin by measuring one of the hemispheres, finding that it has a mass of 21 g and a diameter of 8.0 cm. What is the mass of the heaviest rock that, in perfectly still water, won't sink the plastic boat?

An ore sample weighs 17.50 N in air. When the sample is suspended by a light cord and totally immersed in water, the tension in the cord is 11.20 N. Find the total volume and the density of the sample.

A 950-kg cylindrical can buoy floats vertically in sea-water. The diameter of the buoy is 0.900 m. Calculate the additional distance the buoy will sink when an 80.0-kg man stands on top of it.

A hollow plastic sphere is held below the surface of a freshwater lake by a cord anchored to the bottom of the lake. The sphere has a volume of 0.650 m³ and the tension in the cord is 1120 N. (a) Calculate the buoyant force exerted by the water on the sphere. (b) What is the mass of the sphere?

A cubical block of wood, 10.0 cm on a side, floats at the interface between oil and water with its lower surface 1.50 cm below the interface (Fig. E12.33). The density of the oil is 790 kg/m³. (a) What is the gauge pressure at the upper face of the block? (b) What is the gauge pressure at the lower face of the block?

The tank shown in FIGURE CP14.73 is completely filled with a liquid of density ρ. The right face is not permanently attached to the tank but, instead, is held against a rubber seal by the tension in a spring. To prevent leakage, the spring must both pull with sufficient strength and prevent a torque from pushing the bottom of the right face out. What minimum spring tension is needed?

The average density of the body of a fish is 1080 kg/m³ . To keep from sinking, a fish increases its volume by inflating an internal air bladder, known as a swim bladder, with air. By what percent must the fish increase its volume to be neutrally buoyant in fresh water? The density of air at 20°C is 119 kg/m³.

In FIGURE CP14.74, a cone of density ρ₀ and total height l floats in a liquid of density ρ_f. The height of the cone above the liquid is h. What is the ratio h/l of the exposed height to the total height?

Styrofoam has a density of 150 kg/m³. What is the maximum mass that can hang without sinking from a 50-cm-diameter Styrofoam sphere in water? Assume the volume of the mass is negligible compared to that of the sphere.