Origin
Archimedes' principle (also referred to as the Law of Buoyancy), as stated in Book 1 of Archimedes' work On Floating Bodies, states that "the buoyant force is equal to the weight of the displaced fluid." Simon Stevin developed this idea into the hydrostatic paradox in his De Beghinselen des Waterwichts (Elements of Hydrostatics) (1586). His proof rested partly on the principle of solidification: if a large proportion of the water in a vessel were to be frozen without affecting its weight or volume, leaving just a narrow region of liquid between it and the container, then the forces everywhere would be the same as before solidification, and therefore the frozen water would remain floating in the same position as its liquid precursor. The frozen water could then be replaced by any object of the same shape, weight and centre of gravity, and the object would continue to float.
In the case of a ship, the upward force exerted on it is equal to the weight of water of equal volume to the part of the ship that is submerged. If this upward force is greater than the weight of the ship, then the ship will float.
The Archimedes Paradox implies that if a mould of the hull of ship is made and a relatively small amount of water is placed in the mould, then the ship would float on the thin layer of water between itself and the mould, even though the total volume of water is much less than the volume of the ship.
Read more about this topic: Archimedes Paradox
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