DISEÑO DE EXPERIENCIAS NO TRADICIONALES PARA EL TRATAMIENTO DE SÓLIDOS Y FLUIDOS EN REPOSO: PRINCIPIO DE ARQUÍMEDES

Abstract

In this work a strategy is presented for thetreatment of the Archimedes’s principle used for the analysisof solids surrounded by fluids at rest. Textbooks often usedin the courses of General Physics have been reviewed andseveral conceptual inconsistencies have been found, e.g. Arethe bodies totally or partially immersed? Are the bodiesimmersed in fluids or in liquids? etc.. An integratedtheoretical-practical-experimental approach is proposed forthe treatment of the topic. The design and performance ofnontraditional experiments faced the students withcommonly found formulations of the principle, leading to: 1)The revision of the modeling, approaches and assumptionsfor the systems under study. 2) A critical analysis of theexperiments, correlating the observed phenomena and thetheoretical background valid under ideal conditions. 3) Thenecessary introduction of new concepts, such as surfacetension, often neglected in the discussion of the subject.

Index Terms - Arquímedes, experimentation, modeling, Newton´s laws.