PhysicsLAB Practice Problems
Hydrostatics

Topics: On this worksheet you will practice basic relationships involved in your study of hydrostatics.

Page Directions The numerical values in this worksheet are randomly generated allowing students the opportunity to conveniently practice, and drill, common situations.

Before beginning any given worksheet, please look over all of the questions and make sure that there are no duplicate answers shown for the same question. If duplicates are present simply refresh the page until every answer is unique.

In order to check an answer (even when you are just starting the worksheet on Question 1) it is necessary to omit any questions that you have not answered. Once you start submitting answers, the page may be checked as many times as necesasary without changing the randomized answers. Relevant scoring will be provided at the top of the page only when you answer all of the questions on your original submission.


Question 1  A 523-gram piece of metal (specific gravity = 7) is suspended from a spring scale and is submerged in water. What force does the spring scale read?
suspended block
Question 2  Two objects labeled K and L have equal mass but densities of 0.95Do and Do, respectively. Each of these objects floats after being thrown into a deep swimming pool. Which is true about the buoyant forces acting on these objects?
Question 3  The experimental diving bell shown below is lowered from rest at the ocean’s surface and reaches a maximum depth of 100 meters. During the descent, the pressure inside the bell remains constant at 1 atmosphere. The top of the bell has a cross-sectional area A = 7.0 m2. The density of seawater is 1025 kg/m3.



When the bell reaches the ocean bottom what will the minimum force to open the hatch if it has a radius of 0.24 meters?
Question 4  A large rectangular raft is floating on a lake. The surface area of the top of the raft is 7 m2. If the raft has a total volume of 2.4 m3 and is composed of a material having a density of 664 kg/m3, how much of the raft's height is underwater?

Question 5  How many 72-kg people can safely sit on the raft in Question #4 without the top of the raft sinking below the surface of the water?
Question 6  Three objects of identical mass attached to strings are suspended in a large tank of liquid, as shown below. Rank the densities of the masses from greatest to smallest.

Question 7  A gas is confined in an enclosed cylinder has a density of 2.4 g/cm3. The radius of the cylinder is adjusted until it is 3 times as large while its length is 1/4 as great, how will the density of the confined gas change?


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