# Fluids acceleration on inclined plane

1. Dec 30, 2014

### jonny23

• Missing homework template due to originally being posted elsewhere.
A body is capable of remaining stationary inside a liquid in a closed box (that means its density is same as that of liquid) . If the whole system is placed on inclined plane and allowed to slide down then:
1. body moves up relative to liquid
2. moves down relative to liquid
3. stationary wrt to liquid
4. move up for some angle and move down for some other angle..

ATTEMPT
at first i thought density is same so body doesnot move relative to liquid but the answer is 4.... can anyone explain.....??

2. Dec 30, 2014

### Bystander

i.e., it is indistinguishable from the liquid for purposes of this experiment, and remains ...
There may have been a previous version of the question in which the box was not filled completely, and the answer key has not been brought up to date.

3. Dec 30, 2014

### jonny23

but what will be the shape of free surface of liquid....
and suppose free surface of liquid comes below the box then i think box will have to move down...

4. Dec 30, 2014

### jonny23

suppose it was partially filled then can you explain it please

5. Dec 30, 2014

### Bystander

The drawing/sketch of the problem shows liquid filling the box, so it can't be moved relative to the liquid.
On a frictionless plane, it still won't move. Every volume increment of water is accelerating at the same rate.
With friction, it still doesn't move.
This is beginning to look very much like an "intuitive solution" to a counter-intuitive analytical result.

6. Dec 30, 2014

### jonny23

thanks....but will there be any case when the block moves up or down ...if so plz tell

7. Dec 30, 2014

### Bystander

When the box is not fully filled, and someone starts rocking it back and forth setting up waves, the block will follow the wave motion, but other than that, unless we start postulating compressible fluids or a compressible block, nothing --- watch wait staff in restaurants carrying beverages sometime.

8. Jan 1, 2015

### ime0n

I think it will rotate and move down because the force that is holding the body up in the liquid is pressure and pressure is a function of the depth ,namely H, when the box is put on an inclined plane, to have the same pressure ,the depth must increase because (sign theta times H is smaller than H)

9. Jan 1, 2015

### Nathanael

Buoyancy doesn't depend on depth.

10. Jan 1, 2015

### jonny23

the buyount force doesnot depend on absolute pressure rather it depends on pressure difference and it will be same

11. Jan 2, 2015

### haruspex

You're right that it doesn't depend on depth (ignoring any compressibility of the fluid), but thinking of it as depending on pressure difference is a bit awkward. Pressure difference between where and where, exactly? If you want to express it in terms of pressure, you would need to consider the integral of the pressure over the surface, bearing in mind that the surface area elements are vectors: $\int_S P \vec{dA}$. More useful, probably, to stick with the usual 'weight of the fluid displaced' formulation.

Btw, if we consider compressibility, a body that manages to sit in the middle of a fluid under neutral buoyancy by virtue of having not just the same density as the fluid but also the exact same compressibility is physically unrealistic. More reasonably, the body is less compressible than the fluid, allowing it to sit stably at the depth where the densities match. This may admit a different answer to the question, though maybe none of those offered.

12. Jan 2, 2015

### jonny23

so for a non compressible ideal fluid can the body B rotate or move ??

13. Jan 2, 2015

### haruspex

If neither the fluid nor the object are compressible, and they have the same density, there is no reason why the acceleration of the box down the slope would cause the object to move within the fluid. You can arrive at this by a simple thought experiment. Imagine the object as just a notional parcel of the fluid within a box full of fluid. Why should that parcel move relative to the rest of the fluid?
Of course, in tipping the box prior to letting it slide down the slope, the body might change its orientaion relative to the box.

14. Jan 2, 2015

### ime0n

I misused the word 'depth'. well in comparison to the liquid surface the position of the body doesn't change but it does change in comparison to the top of the box.
In this illustration the blue line shows the liquid level, the Orange dotted line shows the position of the body and the dashed – line shows the position in comparison to the top of the box.

15. Jan 2, 2015

### haruspex

Why do you assume (a) that the fluid does not fill the box and (b) that the top of the liquid will be level as the box accelerates down the slope?

16. Jan 2, 2015

### ime0n

That is only for stationary box, actually I don't understand the question quite well!

17. Jan 2, 2015

### jonny23

ya it will be horizontal when stationary but please explain what happens when it accelerates

18. Jan 2, 2015

### haruspex

Ok, but looking at distance from the top of the sloping box isn't relevant. The question asks how/if the object moves relative to the liquid.
Perhaps the easiest way to see how it will behave is to consider a small blob of the liquid at its surface. It is surrounded by other liquid below and 360 degrees around. So which way does the net force on it from the rest of the liquid point?

19. Jan 3, 2015

### jonny23

i guess that it will be parallel to inclined surface .as the net force should be perpendicular to liquid free surface and the so liquid sholud be parallel to surface. am i right?

20. Jan 3, 2015

### haruspex

In the absence of friction on the slope, yes - well done.
(Can you work out what would happen with some kinetic friction?)