An experimental apparatus to study the buoyant force

This work presents a didactic proposal aimed at high school students that aims to approach qualitatively and quantitatively the buoyant force. The objective of this proposal is to use a low-cost experiment, made with simple materials, to show and explore the existence and cause of the buoyancy, in addition to structuring a mathematical model for the calculation of such force. This experiment is also useful to reinforce and demonstrate concepts about hydrostatics such as pressure and Stevin’s law, which are important for understanding and analyzing the buoyant force. This proposal is part of a project presented by the authors in the discipline Integrated Projects of Physics Teaching 1, of the licentiate degree course in Physics at the Federal University of Paraná.

Keywords:
Archimedes’ principle; buoyant force; buoyancescope; Stevin’s law; pressure