Displacement and Buoyancy Buoyancy is the ability to float in a liquid such as water. Archimedes’s experience with water displacement in the bath gave rise to Archimedes’s Principle, which states that the upward buoyant force, or push, exerted on a body immersed in a fluid is equal to the weight of the fluid the body displaces. In technical terms, buoyancy is the upward force exerted by a fluid on a body when the body is immersed in the fluid.
Part A
Making use of Archimedes’s Principle, displacements, and buoyancy, explain why some objects float on water, but others do not. Use the diagram to help you decide.