I have been playing water polo since my freshman year of high school, so it has always been important to me. Although I am always playing it, I have never really thought about how important it is to consider physics when playing. Water polo is a sport that is based in a swimming pool where the aim is, with your team, to score as many points as possible by throwing a ball into a goal box. One aspect of the game play that is extremely important is having the proper equipment in order to play safely and fairly. One of these pieces of equipment is a ball. This ball must be filled with air and be able to float on the water’s surface. This is important as if the ball goes under the water, then it may be seen as a loss of possession and the ball will subsequently be given to the other team.
Water polo balls come in different sizes for men in women, but I will be discussing the women’s size 4 ball, which has a circumference of 65 cm, a radius of 10.34 cm, and a mass of 0.4 kg. When calculated, this ball has a volume of 4.63E-3 m3. As the ball floats, the buoyant force balances the force of gravity, so by using the equation FB=mballg it was determined that the buoyant force of the ball is equal to 3.92 N. By using this force, the volume of displaced water can also be determined. The equation Vdisp=FB/(pwaterg), where pwater is the density of water, results in the determination that the volume of water displaced is equal to 4.00E-4m3. Lastly, the density of the ball was determined through the use of the equation pball=mball/Vball resulting in a density of 86.39 kg/m3. In the end, I reverified the numbers by using the equation Vdisp/Vball=pball/pfluid which held true when the numbers were plugged in. Determining the density of a water polo ball and comparing it to that of water allowed me to have a deeper understanding of why the ball I take for granted can float.
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