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A cubical block of side 0.5 m floats on water with 30% of its volume under water. What is the maximum weight that can be put on the block without fully submerging it under water? [Take density of water =10³ kg m⁻³]

Asked in JEE Main 10th April 2nd Shift 2019 · Floating and submerged bodies

• (1) 46.3 kg
• (2) 30.1 kg
• (3) 87.5 kg
• (4) 65.4 kg

Step-by-step solution

Why the other options are wrong

• (1) comes from no consistent slip lands here; the only real quantities in this problem are the block's own mass 37.5 kg, the fully submerged displacement 125 kg and their difference 87.5 kg, and 46.3 is none of them.
• (2) comes from a filler that echoes the 30% in the stem; the quantity that 30% actually gives is the block's own mass, 0.30×125=37.5 kg, not 30.1 kg.
• (4) comes from a filler close to half the full displacement, (125)/2=62.5 kg; halving is not a step the physics calls for anywhere here.

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