How do you experimentally determine the volume of an irregularly shaped object that floats?

Answer 1

Personally, what I would do would be to experimentally find a lead fishing sinker,

rock, gold coin etc., which, when added to the irregular object, sinks them both.

For accuracy, the object selected should be smaller than the irregular object.

The smaller, the better.

Then, in the usual way, find the volume of the sinker, the rock, or the gold coin alone.

Write it down so I don't forget it.

Finally, glue the 'ballast' to the irregular object, and measure the volume of the

combination by sinking it. From the volume I find, subtract the volume of the

ballast alone, and I'll have the volume of the irregular object.

Answer 2

Measure a volume of liquid that the object will sink in, the put in the object to be measure. then measure the new volume. the difference between the last volume and the beginning volume is the volume of the object.

Answer 3

If the object did not float you would be able to weight it before and while it is submerged and calculate the volume of water it displaced using the buoyancy principle.

In that case the math would be...

F₀ = force or weight in air (upwards)

F₁ = force or weight submerged (upwards)

ρ = density of water.

V = volume of object

(F₀-F₁)= (mass of water displaced) x g = ρV x g

By submerging the scale used to measure the force or by using a pulling and string (if you what to keep scale dry) you would find that F₁ is down instead of up. This simply means that the value F₁ in the above equation is negative instead of positive.

You would use the same equation.

To help explain let...

ρ₀ = density of object

ρ₂ = density of water displaced

ρ₁ = effective density of object when is it submerged.

ρ₁= ρ₀-ρ₂

If ρ₀ is greater than ρ₂ the object sinks and ρ₁ is positive.

If ρ₀ is less than than ρ₂ the object floats and ρ₁ is negative.

Answer 4

1. Measure the volume of water displaced by the object when it is submerged in a known volume of water.
2. Use the principle of Archimedes' buoyancy to determine the volume of the object from the volume of water displaced.
3. Subtract the initial volume of water from the total volume to find the volume of the irregularly shaped object.

Answer 5

Break it up into sections and find the volumes of them, then add them together

Answer 6

You can find the volume of an irregular object by splitting it into shapes that you can find the volume for. Triangles are easiest.