Question

A steel tank of cross sectional area 3 m2 and 16 m tall weighs 10000 kg and it is open at the top. We want to float it in the ocean so it sticks 10 m straight down by pouring concrete into the bottom of it. How much concrete should I put in?

Answer 1

The force up on the tank is from the water pressure at the bottom times its area. The force down is the gravitation times mass and the atmospheric pressure.

Notice: The first term is the mass of the displaced ocean water. The net force up is the weight (mg) of this mass called bouyancy, P0 cancel.