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THE PHYSICS OF THE

B A L A N G A Y
Katrina Isabelle G. Catalan

10 March

2015
IV - Imaje

The balangay or the balanghai, is celebrated to be the Filipino peoples oldest watercraft, dating
way back before the Philippines pre-Spanish colonial times, and a symbol of our early, native
craftsmanship. The bayanihan concept is seen to be strong in the boat-making tradition of the balangay,
for its very mode of production drives its workers have strong collectivist outlooks (therefore, the
political and social term barangay). Back then, it was used mainly for trading and traveling to spread the
settlement through the whole archipelago both in the local scene and out. The seawater and the sea
winds that blow from all over have allowed and will always allow these colorful boats, made mainly of
carved wooden planks, to float and sail across oceans for the sake of the needs of the community.
However, what is it that makes the balangay float? There is a principle that when you push down
an object while it is in water, there will be a force or a pressure that will always resist the settlement of
the object buoyancy. The floatation of the boat is caused by the buoyant force present in the water (all
liquids exert pressure on every object inserted on it). While gravitational force keeps it grounded, this
counter-acting force keeps it afloat; however, it must be greater than the objects weight. Otherwise, it
will inevitably sink into the very bottom.
The buoyant force is equal to the weight of the water that was displaced by the object.
Archimedes Principle explains that as long as the boats weight, regardless of its size, is lesser or lighter
than the buoyant force in the end, the boats physiology is a success. This explains how the balangay
hovers over global waters.

Then, what makes them sail across large bodies of water? Indeed the winds are a main factor, but
they do not always go behind a boat only for it to move forward (unfortunately, there are just some
factors that mankind cannot directly manipulate). The balangay, just like other boats, still holds the
capability to continue on its journey in spite of winds that blow from the side which makes the
physics behind sailing interesting.
Boats sail downwind or parallel to the wind the wind simply blows into the sail of the boat,
thus pushing it from its behind for the boat to move forward in the direction that it is going. Generally,
the winds are on a whole level in terms of speed if compared to the balangays kinematics, but the sail
functions as a tool for its deceleration. Therefore, if the winds blow from the side, the seafarers only
manipulate the sails shape.
Why does it not drift completely sideways? The large and flat area under the boat, called the
keel, pushes the water sideways. Since water has a buoyant force, it will resist and exert a force against
the force also exerted by the keel thus, cancelling the sideways component. The created drag force
accelerates the boat in a forward manner: Fw + (-Fk) = Fd. In some cases, the drag force becomes a torque
that tends to rotate the boat clockwise, but it is cancelled by the waters buoyant force and the boats
weight that causes the keel to exert an anti-clockwise torque.
These principles are the main elements behind the physics of the balangay.
Sources:
http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/sailing.html
https://diracseashore.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/everyday-physics-boats-and-ice-float/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balangay\
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy

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