Displaced volume versus submerged volume in the floating of a solid

Abstract This paper describes a new theoretical approach accompanied by experiments that demonstrate that the volume of the displaced fluid cannot be used to calculate the magnitude of the buoyant force when a solid object is floated in a container of only slightly larger cross-section than the object. It is important to emphasize that the discussions conducted here are accessible to high school and first-year university physics students because the concept of hydrostatic pressure and easily understood geometric considerations are applied.