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How do ships oat?

The Greek Mathematician and inventor Archimedes lived during the 3rd century B.C. According to history he was in the bath one day when he discovered the principle of buoyancy which is the reason why huge Greek ships weighing thousands of pounds could oat on water. He noticed that as he lowered himself into the bath, the water displaced by his body overowed the sides and he realised that there was a relationship between his weight and the volume of water displaced.

DISCOVERY

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Archimedes discovery

railing

a density of 1,000 kg/cubic metre. Ocean salt water has an average density of 1027 kg/cubic metre.

deck

Round-bottom displacement hull

deck
The hull (body of the ship below the main deck) is typically very wide and has a deep base line, or bottom.

The weight of sea water depends on a number of variables, including the temperature, the amount of salt (salinity) and whatever other foreign items may be present.

The Buoyancy Principle

Archimedes buoyancy principle:

frames (ribs) stringers

deck

A good portion of the interior of any boat is air. The average density of a boat the combination of the steel and the air is very light compared to the average density of water. So very little of the boat actually has to submerge into the water before it has displaced the weight of the boat. Vertical watertight dividers known as bulkheads are installed throughout the interior of the hull. These dividers keep damaged ships aoat by containing incoming water into a compartment or compartments, preventing the whole ship from ooding.

Ship weight: 1,000 kg Displaced water: 1,000 kg

A ship will oat when the weight of the water it displaces equals the weight of the ship and anything will oat if it is shaped to displace its own weight of water before it reaches the point where it will submerge.

cargo hold inner bottom

keel plate

outer bottom

Cruise ships are typically constructed with extrastrength steel and double hulls (a hull within a hull).

Rectanglar with rounded edges to dissipate drag. Allows large, heavy ships to move smoothly. Extremely stable. Passengers rarely feel any rocking or side-to-side movement. These hulls move uidly, but the resistance of the water makes them extremely slow.

Different materials have different densities but can have equal volume and therefore will have a different buoyancy. These objects are the same size (occupy same volume of space), but have different densities. Bowling ball will sink. Balloon will oat. The bowling ball weighs more than the weight of the water it displaces. The bowling ball has a low surface area to weight ratio.

Bowling ball vs. balloon

Why did the Concordia sink?

Costa Concordia Length: 290.2m Width: 35.5m Tonnage: 114,500 GT Displacement: 51,387 tonnes

A boat is essentially a hollow shell lled with air, meaning that it has a large surface area to weight ratio. Therefore, the boat will still be well above the surface when it has displaced its equivalent weight in water.

At 9:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 13, the cruise ship Costa Concordia struck rocks 300 metres off the island of Giglio, near the coast of Italy, ripping a hole in the hull. The captain had deviated from the deep water route usually taken by large ships to travel closer to shore.

When a boat takes on enough water it will become too heavy to remain buoyant.

The wash from a ship close to shore has no where to go and may have rebounded on the hull, causing the ship to roll.

SUSAN BATSFORD, GRAPHICS EDITOR, TWITTER @SBATS1/QMI AGENCY