Abstract

Simple experimental evidence shows that the current physical interpretation of the phenomenon of a solid material body floating on the surface of a liquid body - known as ‘Archimedes’ Principle’ - is not correct. As this interpretation is a consequence of the assumption that a volume of material, when immersed in a fluid, does not ‘lose’ its ‘weight’, what we believe of gravitational mechanical action is also not correct.

A material volume immersed in a fluid is currently believed to be subjected to two mechanical actions, ‘gravitational mechanical action’ or ‘weight of the material volume’ and ‘Archimedes’ force’. This is not in fact correct: the material volume is subjected to only one mechanical action, proportional to volume and to the difference in density between the matter of the material volume and that of the fluid.

We propose to call this mechanical action the ‘weight of the material volume in that fluid’, ceteris paribus. At the Earth’s surface, floating of a solid material volume B on the surface of a liquid volume is the result of the concurrent action of two ‘weights’, the ‘weight in air’ of the part of volume B which is immersed in air, directed downwards, and the ‘weight in the liquid’ of the part of volume B which is immersed in the liquid, directed upwards.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.