Forces affecting a body at the bottom of water

AI Thread Summary
A body submerged in water, with a density greater than water, settles at the bottom due to gravity. It is in equilibrium because the normal force from the container's bottom counteracts the weight of the body, despite the buoyant force being less than the gravitational force. The equation Fg = Fb + Fnorm accurately describes this balance, although it may require adjustments in non-inertial frames due to pseudo forces. The buoyant force is determined by the volume of water displaced, while the normal force provides the necessary support to maintain equilibrium. Thus, the system can be understood as stable under these conditions.
Misr
Messages
384
Reaction score
0
Consider a body at the bottom of water whose density is certainly more than that of water,so it settles under water:
[PLAIN]http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/1778/unled123copy.jpg
I'm trying to explain how the body is under equilibruim although the buoyancy is less than gravity
That's because of the normal force of the bottom of the container,or the reaction of the container to the body pushing on it due to its weight,thus we have

Fg=Fb+Fnorm.

Is that true?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Physics news on Phys.org
Pretty much.
 
What do you mean by "Pretty much" :D ?
Is this true or not?
 
Is this true or not?[/QUOTE]I think you are correct.
Misr said:
What do you mean by "Pretty much" :D ?
His pretty much means if the system is in non inertial frame then your equations may(depend on direction of acceleration) wrong. In that case you need to add pseudo forces.
 
Fb (the buoyancy force?) may be affected by the details of how the object contacts with the bottom of the tank. If there were a lip / seal around the outer bottom edge, not allowing water in underneath, then there might be no buoyancy force (only a small amount of air pressure in the space. The upwards force could be largely from the forces through the lip / seal and not due to hydrostatic pressure (upthrust).
 
Okay,but this is basically not wrong..
In which case can we say that this equation works?
 
it works.

The buoyant force is equal to the weight of the volume of water displaced and at the same
time gravity is pulling the object in the opposite direction.

So the resultant force holding the object in equilibrium is your normal force...a force less
than the weight of the object in air,
 
Yeah,Okay thanks very much :)
 
Back
Top