A lobsterman's buoy is a solid wooden cylinder of radius r and mass M. It is weighted on one end so that it floats upright in calm sea water, having density . A passing shark tugs on the slack rope mooring the buoy to a lobster trap, pulling the buoy downward a distance x from its equilibrium position and releasing it.

Determine the period of the oscillations. (Use rho for ρ, M, r, and g as appropriate in your equation.)

1 answer

The force on the bouy is density*g*PI r^2*x

The "spring" constant then is f=kx or
k=density*g*PI*r^2

The mass oscillating is M

period=2PIsqrt(M/k)