What would be the final mean draft in sea water of a 10 foot by 10 foot by 50 foot long barge weighing 10 long tons, if it was evenly loaded with an additional 50 long tons of cargo?
• Archimedes’ principle – a floating body displaces its own weight of water • Relationship between weight, volume displaced, and draft for a rectangular barge • Unit conversions: long tons to pounds, cubic feet of seawater to pounds
• First find how much the barge will weigh after loading, then determine how many cubic feet of seawater that weight will displace • Use the water density in seawater (in pounds per cubic foot) to convert total weight into displaced volume • For a rectangular barge, relate displaced volume to underwater volume (length × beam × draft) to solve for the mean draft
• Be sure you convert long tons to pounds correctly before doing any volume calculations • Use an appropriate value for seawater density in lb/ft³ and stay consistent with units • After you find the draft in feet, convert the decimal part of a foot into inches to match the answer choices
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