The reason any boat floats is due to its buoyancy and the principle of flotation more on that principle later.

A boat floats because of which force. One of the forces is the gravitational force and the other one is the force of buoyancy. Why traditional and modern rafts float. If a boat fills up with water the weight of this water adds to the boats weight and there will be less flotation to support the boat.

This force is called buoyant force. As the ice cube displaces or pushes away some. At the same time they are pulled down by the force of their own weight caused by gravity they are pushed up by the buoyant force which is equal to the weight of the volume of water they displace.

Kylee07drg January 20 2013. I suppose the ideal boat would be one made of light wood like driftwood. To understand buoyant force think about what happens when you put an ice cube into your glass of water.

Gravity is trying to pull your pennies and tin foil downward while the buoyant force is pushing the boat upwards. The buoyant force pushes upwards against the object. You can feel this force by holding a block of wood under water.

A boat or any object on the water will float if its downward or gravitational force is less than its upward force or buoyancy. A boat floats because it displaces a water volume that creates a flotation force to hold it up. Wood floats because it isnt very dense so boats made with wood have no trouble floating along.

Gravity which pulls it down because of its mass and the buoyancy force or upthrust which pushes it up. Buoyancy ˈbɔɪənsi ˈbuːjənsi or upthrust is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of a partially or fully immersed object. When a boat is floating in water it experiences two opposing forces in this experiment.