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Principle
Archimedes' treatise On floating bodies, proposition 5, states that Any floating object displaces its own weight of fluid. Archimedes of Syracuse[2] For more general objects, floating and sunken, and in gases as well as liquids (i.e. a fluid), Archimedes' principle may be stated thus in terms of forces: Any object, wholly or partially immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object. Archimedes of Syracuse with the clarifications that for a sunken object the volume of displaced fluid is the volume of the object, and for a floating object on a liquid, the weight of the displaced liquid is the weight of the object. More tersely, buoyancy = weight of displaced fluid. [edit]Refinements Archimedes' principle does not consider the surface tension (capillarity) acting on the body.[3] [edit]Formula
then inserted into the quotient of weights, which has been expanded by the mutual volume
yields the formula below. The density of the immersed object relative to the density of the fluid can easily be calculated without measuring any volumes:
(This formula is used for example in describing the measuring principle of a dasymeter and of hydrostatic weighing.) Example: If you drop wood into water buoyancy will keep it afloat. Example: A helium balloon in a moving car. In increasing speed or driving a curve, the air moves in the opposite direction of the car's acceleration. The balloon however, is pushed due to buoyancy "out of the way" by the air, and will actually drift in the same direction as the car's acceleration.