192 



FLOATING BODIES. 



mersed in water, the greater part of its weight is boi 

 by the water, and the body appears very light. Thi 

 very little force is required to keep a man above tl 

 surface of water, because the weight of the human bodi 



FIG. 137 (an.proj. 



exceeds only by a few kilogrammes that of an equ 

 volume of water, and a man completely immersed in 

 water loses all his weight except tbis small excess of a 

 few kilogrammes. If a body had precisely the sam 

 specific gravity as the liquid in which it is immerse 

 it would lose the whole of its weight, that is, the action 

 of gravity which tends to draw the body downwards 

 would in that case be exactly counteracted by the 

 buoyancy of the liquid, which tends to push the body 

 upwards, and the body would be acted on by two 

 equal and. opposite forces. Such a body would remain 



