• Question: How do boats float?

    Asked by aileenjcat to Colin, John, Kevin, Shikha, Triona on 12 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Tríona O'Connell

      Tríona O'Connell answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Anything denser than water will sink, anything less dense than water should float. Density is calculated as Weight divided by Volume.
      The density of water is 1g/cm^3, so anything less dense than this will float. Most of a boat is empty space, (air is .001225 g/cm^3) which allows it to have a very large volume for very little weight. As long as the total weight of the boat divided by its volume is smaller than that of water, it’ll float no problem.

    • Photo: Shikha Sharma

      Shikha Sharma answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      Hi Aileenjcat,

      Do you remember Archimedes. Not only boat, any object can float on water as per Archimedes principle provided it follows the rule. Whenever we put something in water it displaces some amount of water. Archimedes principle says, any object to float in water, the object must displace at least equally or higher amount (weight) water than the object itself!!!! When we put a boat in water, due it shapes it displaces higher amount (weight) of water than weight of the boat itself. That’s how the boat floats.

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