A raft has a mass of 35.0kg. there are two people on the raft. one has a mass of 45.0kg and the other has a mass of 50.0kg. how many cubic meters of fresh water will they have to displace in order to float?

Question

anonymous · Answer

The bouyant force i.e. the force needed to support (float) and object in a fluid  is equal to the weight of the volume of the fluid that the object displaces.  If the body is floating then the bouyant force is equal to the weight of the object.  Thus the mass of the floating object must  equal to the mass of the amount of fluid displaced.  In this case the total mass of the raft and occupants being 130 Kg must equal to the mass of water that is displaced.  So 130 Kg of water is how many cu. meters?  (There are 1000 L of fresh water in 1 cu meter)

zephyr141 · Answer

so just find the volume of water that weighs 130 kg. right?

anonymous · Answer

@zephyr141 Correct,  sorry I took so long to get back to you.