Orange Buoyancy: Is An Orange Floats In Water

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Introduction

The scope of my research is orange buoyancy. Buoyancy is if something floats or sinks in water or other fluids. Normally we take into perspective the object’s weight and that things which are really light usually float. We never think about how something that is big and heavy like a big ship can float. Although big ships are very heavy they can float because they have a very large volume and take up a lot of space. This particular experiment will mainly focus on whether an orange floats or sinks in water. My prediction was that the orange would float since it weighed less than the orange with the rind\peel on. This experiment will allow people to get to the bottom of why an orange behaves the way it does and also give people an …show more content…

In this particular experiment it will be water. To indicate whether an object is buoyant is defined by Archimedes’ Principle which states that any object in a fluid is buoyed up by a force which is equivalent to the weight of the fluid supplanted by the object. When you put an orange in water two forces are acting on the orange in antagonistic directions. Gravitational makes the orange sink while the buoyant force makes the orange float. Gravity draws the orange down with a force that is the same as the weight of the orange.
While the buoyant force pushes the orange up with a force that is the same as the amount of water that the orange supplanted. If the orange can supplant a volume of water that is the same or is greater than the weight of the orange then it will be buoyant and therefore float.
While making the orange weigh a little more, the peel of an orange helps supplant enough water to make the unpeeled orange float. The peel of an orange contains many small pockets of air that contribute to the unpeeled orange being less dense than water and floating. When the peel is removed the orange does not supplant a sufficient amount of water to prevail over gravitational force, the orange then becomes denser than water, and hence it sinks to the bottom of the …show more content…

What do you notice about the orange? Does the orange float or does the orange sink to the bottom of the surface?
• After that, remove the peel further known as the rind from the second orange
• Slowly and carefully without letting any water out, put the second orange in the second glass or bowl. What do you notice about the orange? Does the orange float or does the orange sink to the bottom of the surface?
• Write a summary about the results that you got from this experiment. You will notice that the results are not the same, there is a slight difference.

Processing of findings

When I first put the orange in the bowl of the water, it floated on the surface, after I removed the peel it sunk to the bottom. The reason being is because when you remove the peel of the orange (and all the air pockets) it increases its density greater than water, making it sink to the bottom. The peel or in other words the rind is full of small air spaces which assist giving it a low density than water making it float on the

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