Worksheet #1g: Hydrostatic Pressure & Archimedes’ principle

QUESTION 1:
(a) The graph below shows how the boiling of water varies with the pressure of the air above the water.

(i) A school in Jamaica is situated at an altitude of 1 000 m. At the school, air pressure is usually about 90 kPa. At what
temperature would you expect water to boil? [1 mark]
(ii) What TWO factors leads to the pressure being lower at greater altitudes? [2 marks]
(b) Inside the pressure cooker, the pressure is higher than normal. The diagram (Figure 1) shows the pressure cooker
being used to cook some food.

Figure 1
The lid is airtight except for a small hole, which has an area of 1 x 10-5 m2, at the top. A weight is placed on top of the
hole to close it.
(i) If the weight used is 0.5N, what is the pressure due to this weight? Convert your answer to kPa. [4 marks]
(ii) What is the total pressure acting on the contents of atmospheric pressure is 100 kPa? [1 mark]
(iii) At what temperature would the water in the pressure cooker boil? [1 mark]
(iv) What effect might the temperature identified in (iii) above have on the time it takes for the food to cook? [2 marks]
(v) To prevent accidents, the safety valve opens if the pressure inside the pressure cooker exceeds twice the pressure of
the atmosphere. At what temperature does this occur? [1 mark]
(c) In terms of the kinetic theory of gases, why does the pressure of the gas in a sealed container rise when the
temperature rises? [3 marks ]
TOTAL: 15 marks
QUESTION 2:
(a) A bubble of air has a volume of 10 cm3 at the bottom of a pond of depth h. On reaching the surface, where the
pressure is atmospheric, the volume is 12 cm3. If the temperature of the pond is constant, find h. [7 marks]
(b) Explain with the aid of a diagram, how the transmission of hydraulic pressure can pride a force large enough to stop a
motor car. [8 marks]
(c) Use Archimedes’ principle to explain how a submarine can both float and sink. [5 marks]
TOTAL: 20 marks

QUESTION 3:
(a) With the aid of a labelled diagram, describe the structure of a simple mercury barometer. How do barometer reading
provide an indication of the approach of a hurricane? [6 marks]

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(b) An open-ended mercury manometer is connected to a cylinder containing a gas at room temperature of 27 0C shown
below. The manometer is 25 cm and the mercury barometer reading at the time is 75 cm.

(i) Calculate the pressure, in Pa, of the gas in the cylinder. [4 marks]
(ii) To what temperature must the gas be raised on order to increase the manometer reading to 50 cm? [5 marks]
5
(c) (i) A boy is riding a bicycle with tyres pumped to a pressure of 5.0 x 10 Pa. Given that the combined mass of the boy
and the bicycles is 75 kg, calculate the are of the tyres that is in contact with the read. [3 marks]
(ii) Why is the pressure in the tyre of a racing bicycle usually higher that that in a motor car tyre? [2 marks]
4 -3 -1
[Density of mercury = 1.36 x 10 kgm ; g = 10 Nkg )
TOTAL: 20 marks
QUESTION 4:
A Physics teacher told one of his students that it is possible to determine the density of an object without knowing the
volume, He immediately set about to investigate the problem theoretically and produced a a formula for finding the
density in the way described.
Wa S
= …………………………….. Y
WW S-1
Where Wa = weight of object in air
Ww = weight of object when immersed in water
ρ
S= …………………………….. Z
ρW

ρW = Density of water
ρ = Density of unknown substance
The diagram below shows a representation of measurement taken in an experiment to test the validity of this formula.

Ww
Wa

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(a) Identify the items of apparatus labelled A, B and C. [3 marks]
(b) (i) What is Wa the weight of the object in air? [1 mark]
(ii) What is Ww the weight of the object in water? [1 mark]
(iii) What is V the volume of the object being investigated? [1 mark]
(c) (i) Calculate S from the formula Y. [2 marks]
(ii) Calculate ρ from the equation Z. [2 marks]
(d) Use the data from (b) to calculate ρ, the density of the object. [4 marks]
(e)(i) Compare the values of ρ calculate in (c)(ii) and (d) [1 mark]
(ii) What is your conclusion about the validity of the student’s formula? [1 mark]
TOTAL: 16 marks
QUESTION 5:
A student conducted an experiment to determine how the pressure in a liquid varies with depth as shown below.

The student obtained the following results as shown in the table below:
Change in pressure, ∆P (Pa) Change in Depth, ∆h (m)
1 210 0.10
1 890 0.20
2 900 0.30
4 300 0.40
4 750 0.50
6 920 0.70

(a) Plot a graph of ∆P against ∆h. [8 marks]

(b) (i) Write an equation linking liquid pressure, density and depth. [2 marks]
(ii) Calculate the slope S of the graph. [5 marks]
(iii) The table below shows three liquids and their densities. Determine which of these liquids was used in the
experiment.
Liquid Density (kgm-3)
Petrol 800
Water 1 000
Mercury 13 600
[4 marks]
(c) Using the graph plotted, find the TOTAL pressure exerted on the base of the container in the diagram given above.
[Gravitational field strength, g =10 Nkg-1; Atmospheric pressure = 1.03 x 105 Pa] [2 marks]
(d) The diagram below shows a manometer being used to measure the pressure of the gas in a container.

(i) State, giving reasons, if the pressure of the gas is LESS than or GREATER than atmospheric pressure. [2 marks]
(ii) Calculate the EXCESS pressure in mmHg. [2 marks]
TOTAL: 25 marks

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