http://www.teachengineering.org/view_lesson.php?url=collection/duk_/lessons/duk_float_mary_less/duk_float_mary_less.xmllessontext/xmlWhat Floats Your Boat?Engineering K-Ph.D. Program, buoyancy density Archimedes’ principle displacement water pressure densitybuoyancy Students use modeling clay, a material that is denser than water and thus ordinarily sinks in water, to discover the principle of buoyancy. They begin by designing and building boats out of clay that will float in water, and then refine their designs so that their boats will carry as great a load (metal washers) as possible. Building a clay boat to hold as much weight as possible is an engineering design problem. Next, they compare amount of water displaced by a lump of clay that sinks to the amount of water displaced by the same lump of clay when it is shaped so as to float. Determining the masses of the displaced water allows them to arrive at Archimedes’ principle, whereby the mass of the displaced water equals the mass of the floating clay boat.
Density is an important property in many materials engineering applications. Building a clay boat to hold as much weight as possible is an engineering design problem.
Students will be able to state Archimedes’ principle of buoyancy. Students will be able to define a buoyant object as one whose density is less than that of water. Students will be able to describe how water pressure acts in opposition to gravity in order to make buoyant objects float. 150TeachEngineering.orgMary R. Hebrank (Project Writer and Consultant ), Duke Universityhttp://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhowS1019570North_CarolinaMath2.02 Solve problems involving volume and surface area of cylinders, prisms, and composite shapes.77S101385FNorth_CarolinaMath2.02 Apply and use concepts of indirect measurement.88S10284BDNorth_CarolinaScience1.06 Use mathematics to gather, organize, and present quantitative data resulting from scientific investigations:<br />• Measurement.77S102853FNorth_CarolinaScience1.06 Use mathematics to gather, organize, and present quantitative data resulting from scientific investigations:<br />• Measurement.88S102852ENorth_CarolinaScience6.06 Investigate and analyze the real world interactions of balanced and unbalanced forces:<br />• Sports and recreation.77United StatesCopyright 2012 - Engineering K-Ph.D. Program, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke Universityhttp://www.teachengineering.org/policy_ipp.phphttp://www.teachengineering.org/2010-06-178Teacher