Q. 14.18 A cylindrical piece of cork of density of base area A and height h floats in a liquid of density . The cork is depressed slightly and then released
Show that the cork oscillates up and down simple harmonically with a period where is the density of cork. (Ignore damping due to viscosity of the liquid).
Let the cork be displaced by a small distance x in downwards direction from its equilibrium position where it is floating.
The extra volume of fluid displaced by the cork is Ax
Taking the downwards direction as positive we have
Comparing with a=-kx we have