Practice Problems
1. Suppose that a person is swimming in the ocean, which has saltwater with a density of
1025 kg/m 3. If this person swims to a depth of 5 m below the surface of the water, how
much pressure does this swimmer experience? (Patm = 1.01 × 105 Pa)
2. A cube with a volume of 8 cm 3 is submerged into a glass of uid. The pressure at the top
of the cube is 104 k Pa and the pressure at the bottom of the cube is 106 k Pa. What is
the uid’s approximated density?
3. Calculate the di erence in pressure between the surface of a lake and a depth of 15 m
below the surface.
4. At a depth of 11 m from the free surface, what is the absolute pressure of water if
Patm = 102.213 k N ⋅ m 2
5. What will be the gauge pressure at a depth of 990 m in the ocean when the given density
of seawater is 1.02 × 103 kg/m 3?
6. A diver in the ocean is 20 m below the surface. What is the absolute pressure she
experiences?
7. Scientists have found evidence that Mars may once have had an ocean 0.500 km deep.
The acceleration due to gravity on Mars is 3.71 m /s2. What would be the gauge pressure at
the bottom of such an ocean, assuming it was fresh water?
8. The small piston of a hydraulic lift has an area of 0.20 m 2. A car weighing 1.2 × 10 4 N sits
on a rack mounted on the large piston. The large piston has an area of 0.90 m 2. How large
force must be applied to the small piston to support the car?
9. A rectangular container, with a height and base H = 6 cm and area A = 20 cm 2
respectively, is lled with ethanol with density ρeth = 800 kg/m 3. This container is oating
in a liquid of density ρf = 1200 kg/m 3. h = 4 cm of its height is in the uid. Find the
buoyancy force exerted on the container.
10. A piece of wood oats on the surface of the water. What is the ratio of the portion of the
wood submerged in the water to that of outside the water? (ρwood = 0.6 g/cm 3,
ρwater = 1 g/cm 3)
11. Determine whether an object with a mass of 150 kg which is thrown into the water and
displaces a volume of 100 liters of water will sink or oat.
12. Calculate the buoyant force of a raft that has a volume of 6 cubic meters when two-thirds
of its volume is submerged in seawater with a density of 1025 kg/m 3.
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13. A king orders a gold crown having a mass of 0.5 kg. When it arrived from the metal smith,
the volume of the crown was found to be 185 cm 3. Is the crown made of solid gold? The
density of gold is 1.9 × 103kg/m 3.
14. Find the density of metallic body which oats at the interface of mercury which has a
speci c gravity of 13.6 and water such that 40 % of its volume is submerged in mercury
and 60 % in water.
15. A body of dimensions 2.7m × 3.8m × 2.5m weighs 2500 N in water. Find its weight in air.
16. What is the buoyant force on a 10 m 3 woodblock that has 40 % of its volume submerged
in the ocean? ρsalt water = 1025 kg/m 3.
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