Now, this is the question which everyone must have pondered over as a kid. Why something so heavy does not sink but floats, and not only floats but also carries so much cargo at times. Well, today we will understand why ships float!Now, everything in this world is ruled by classical physics and so does this phenomenon
Before we jump on to the science and math of why ships float we have to pay some due respect to the guy because of which we have the answer to this curious question. That guy is Archimedes, Archimedes was a scientist and much more. He was a genius and some people even regarded him as being mentally retarded.
The legend has it that he was given a task by the king to adjudge whether his crown was made up of pure gold or not. Now Archimedes was having a bath in his bathtub and also pondering over the task at hand. Nobody knows what happened but somehow the movement of water in his bathtub led him to formulate the Archimedes principle.
Also read: Submarine – Principles and Design? How does it work?
Archimedes principle states that “The upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, whether fully or partially submerged, is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces”
So how does it fit into this equation or our question that “why ships float?”, see its quite evident that when the weight of the body is less than the weight of the fluid it displaces, then that object will float and not sink. The game is off the volume vis weight.
For Example:
