Learning physics by experiment: XI. Hydrostatics

The mass of a ship can exceed 10^8 kg and the fact that it still floats with such a large value causes difficulties for many students when they try to explain how this is possible. An experiment with everyday materials has been created to address this problem by starting with the basic concept and progressing via intermediate steps to conclude with advanced scenarios. Students begin their investigation of the topic by constructing a simple vessel to confirm that the fundamental principle is obeyed. Once this has been established, students are then challenged to optimize the design of the vessel to determine the maximum load that can be borne by a fixed vessel mass. Differentiated instruction is provided for the derivation of theoretical values for comparison with experimental data to measure the efficacy of the vessel design. The results are reasonable and they vary because they depend in large part on practical skills. The overall outcome demonstrates the benefits of applying the same underlying approach employed in other research {[1-12], i.a.} to the study described here.



[1] APR10.Z11.7; [2] APR12.J15.8; [3] APR14.D1.50; [4] APR18.F01.5; [5, 6, 7] MAR19.G70.102, 103, 104; [8, 9] MAR21.C15.12, H71.49; [10] APR22.F01.35; [11] MAR23.G00.188; [12] APR24.N00.64 (meetings.aps.org)