# 4.2: Body Volume by Displacement (Dunking) Method


The displacement method (submersion, or dunking method) can be used to accurately measure the volume of the human body and other oddly shaped objects by measuring the volume of fluid displaced when the object is submerged, as illustrated in the figure below.

When the dinosaur is submerged some of the water is displaced and the water level rises. The displaced volume is measured by reading the gradings, in this case 49 to 53, for a total of 4 volume units (which could be cm3 for a toy dinosaur or m3 for a real one). Image credit: Greg Golz, Exploring Science

Measuring body volume with the displacement method requires specialized equipment, such as a large tub of water with volume grading (markings) or a special scale that can measure the apparent weight of a submerged person. Recently technologies have been developed that allow for air rather than water to be used as the submersion fluid, opening up the method to a broader set of the population [2]

This page titled 4.2: Body Volume by Displacement (Dunking) Method is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Lawrence Davis (OpenOregon) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.