How much does 1 million pounds of steel weigh in water?

Answer 1

ANS1:Because of the natural buoyancy water provides steel actually weighs less in water. so 1 million pounds of steel in water would weigh only 500,000 pounds. Cheers!! ANS2:Bull. Answer 1 is a soup sandwich.

The earth is still pulling the steel towards it with the same force. That force is its weight. That the water is also being pulled toward the earth and causes the buoyant upward force on the steel does not make the steel's weight less. That is like arguing that a hunk of steel is weightless because the floor is pushing against it as hard as it is pushing against the floor or arguing that a steel-hulled ocean liner has no weight because it floats in water. The steel will still have the weight of 1 million pounds-force.

Since the specific gravity of steel is 7.8, the upward buoyant force will be 1/7.8 of its weight. If you insist on using pounds to measure weight, the upward buoyant force would be 128,000 pounds-force. You could subtract this from the 1 million pounds-force of the steel to get 872,000 pounds-force. You could call this its effective weight or net downward force if you want to make the point that that force is what is pressing on the bottom of the body of water.

This is probably the answer you should put on your homework if you are a student in a U.S. public school. If you put anything else down, you will likely confuse your teacher especially if you try to argue the difference between pound-force, pound-mass poundals, and slugs.

ANS3

ALOT! Roughly 686,000 tonnes :-)

Answer 2

1 million pounds of steel would weigh 0 pounds in water, as steel is denser than water and sinks in it.