Question

What can you say about the average density of a ship floating on water in relation to the density of water?
A. Average density of a ship is more than the density of water.
B. Average density of the ship is less than the density of water.
C. Average density of the ship is equal to the density of water.
D. None of the above.

Answer 1

Hint:In this question, the density of water (fluid) and density of ship (object) is mentioned. So, we have to choose that law which is related to the density of the ship (object) and water(fluid).

Complete step-by-step solution:
In this question, a ship is floating on the water. A ship is made of heavy metals and very big in size. So, generally, it can’t float on the water. As we know this case of non-floating water for an iron nail. An iron nail is a solid object but a ship is a hollow object.
So, here we can use the law of floating which is related to the density of the object and density of the fluid.
 The law of floatation states that an object will float in a fluid if it has less density than the fluid.
Now, for the ship to float on the water, its(ship’s) average density must be less than the density of the water.
Hence, option B is correct.
Additional Information: - There are two different laws associated with this question. They are
Floatation Law- When the density of the object is equal or less than to the density of fluid then the object floats in the fluid.
Archimedes principle- All the objects placed in the fluid experience some upward force which allows the object to float. This upward force is known as buoyancy force.

Note:- There are two different laws for this situation. First one is floatation law and the other one is Archimedes principle. In case of density, floatation law is used and in case of buoyancy force, Archimedes principle is used.