Monday, September 13, 2010

How Dense Are You?

Density is a concept that we will use this unit. It is a relationship between mass and volume of an object, where mass will be divided by the volume of the object. The density of water for example has a density of 1.0 g/ml. The density of aluminum is 2.7 g/ml. Anything that is said to have a density greater than 1.0g/ml will sink in water and those with a density less than 1.0g/ml will float in water.

Why then will a gigantic ship made mainly of steel (let's call that a density of 7.8 g/ml) float in water fairly easily with many passengers and potentially a massive cargo aboard? Discuss your answer in a logical, well organized fashion (1 paragraph or more if you are up to it). You may even have to do some research. Do not ask your parents! Type up your response, post it here by Friday, Sept. 17th. Good luck and have a great weekend!

99 comments:

Tyler Sammann said...

The ship will float because it has less mass then the water surrounding it. A fluid will react to a surrounding if the surrounded object displaces more than it's weight of the liquid it's immersed in. I seems almost impossible, but is true.

Julia Tropp said...

The ship will float because the ship is running and the ship has a motor so it will keep running. Even if it doesn't have a motor a kayak can stay afloat with passengers on it because it is moving and even when it doesn't move it has less density than the water around it. It doesn't really go with the law of physics but it is true.

Lucas Sanders said...

The reason that the ship will not sink is because it displaces a lot of water, in fact, more water then it actually weighs. Think of this, first of all, there is an ocean, and a certain amount of water in that ocean actually has a lot of weight. When a boat goes into the water, even if it is heavy, the boat will sink a little bit, but it will make all the water that was in the ocean previously at that spot displace, so much water, in fact, that it is now lighter then the amount of water it displced. Therefore, the ocean would rather support that boat (which is still comparatively light to the water it displaced) then the water it actually displaced. However, if you keep putting on more and more weight, the boat will eventually become neutral and sink.

Dylan Lederer said...

The ship will float because ships use their weight to displace the equivalent amount of water when they press into the ocean. The ocean returns the press causing the ship to become buoyant. Buoyancy is the upward force keeping an object afloat. In order for the ship to float it's buoyancy must be greater than its weight. If you were to measure the weight of the displaced water it would be equal to the ship's weight.

Joshua Hoeflich said...

The ship will float because the ship should be constructed so that the density of the ship will be lighter then the water around it. The density of the ship will be lighter because the ship displaces the water, causing pressure on the water molecules to push the ship up. However, if enough weight were to be put on the ship, the weight would negate the displacement and sink the ship.

Jackie Struer said...

A metal block will not floa in water, but a metal boat will. Why? the anwser is bouncy. The steel ship has air inside it, so if that steel block that you tried to make float was hollow, like the boat then, it would float.

Gordie Rohrbach said...

The ship will float because when a boat is put into water the boat displaces the water underneath it. When the water is displaced the boat that was put in is lighter than the large amount of water it displaced. The heavier the load the lower the boat goes displacing more water. At one point when the boat sinks low enough water flows into the boat and the it sinks.

Evan Ricaurte said...

The ship floats because it displaces the water around it. By displacing the water, the boat is actually sitting on water that weighs more than it, but if too much weight is added to the boat, it will sink. It would sink because it will run out of outer surface area to displace the water around it, and the water would eventually flow over and into the ship, replacing much of the water that was moved away from the boat. The water is replaced because it can fill the airspace inside the boat that was originally somewhat of a "bubble" at the surface of the water.

Madeleine Pye said...

The boat will float because it displaces the amount of water equal to it's own weight. The stability of the boat is important as well. While the boat presses down on the water, the displaced water presses up against the boat, and the boat stays afloat.
If the center of gravitiy is lower than the bouyancy, the boat will sink. So, the boat must also keep the center of gravity on the boat higher than the bouyancy.
The key to floating is that the object must displace an amount of water which is equal to its own weight.

Unknown said...

The boat will stay afloat because of its density. It will do that because it weighs less than all of the water surrounding it. It displaces the water fairly easily because of its size too. Look at the Titanic. It was made mainly of steel, carried thousands of passengers, but it still floated. Yes it sank, but that proves that the boot will stay afloat.

Patrick Huang said...

The ship stays afloat rather than sinking because the water has a greater overall mass than the boat. After placing the boat into the water, the water itself becomes displaced. This means that the boat becomes lighter than the water it is placed in.

rodrigo garcia said...

well there are many possible ways a steel ship on way is by have an air space between the two parts of the outside of the steel boat that touches the water and making sure no water gets in the those parts of the boat

rodrigo garcia part2 said...

the air that is in between the two steel sides will cause pressure so the boat won't sink in the water

Isabel Machlin said...

The large ship will float because it displaces as much water as it weighs. As the ship is displacing, the water is pushing up at ship. This process keeps the ship buoyant. The ship is constructed so that it can displace water easily.

Liza Salberg said...

The reason that the ship will float is because of their shape, and the laws of physics as pertains to buoyancy.
The ship has so much weight, and when it enters a body of water, the weight shifts, but still the same amount. Also, the boat has less mass than the water and when the boat does not move it has less density then the water around it.

Talia S. La Schiazza said...

The reason the ship will float is because ships use their weight to shift the same amount of weight when they go into a body of water. the water returns the press causing the ship to be able to float. When it doesn't move it has less density than the water around it. This theory does not follow any of the rules of physics, however, it works!

Anonymous said...

The ship will float on the water because the ship has less density than ALL the water around it. Let's say the ship is in the Atlantic Ocean. Now I don't know what the density of the Atlantic is but I know it is definitely more dense than the ship. If you jump in a pool, you sink for a bit but then you float on the surface because you are less dense than the ENTIRE pool. Think of it that way.

michael ashman said...

The ship will float because its surroundings (the water) has more mass. Plus the ship is moving and it makes it harder to sink because it is not stationary in the water. Also the ship covers so much area that the mass of the water under it keeps it afloat.

Michael Robbins said...

The ship will float because of its shape and the water it displaces. Water has an average density of approximately 1 gram per milliliter at 4° centigrade. If the average density of object is greater than that, it will sink. If the average density of an object is less than that, it will float. The average density of object, in this case the ship, includes everything contained in it. This means the average density of the ship includes the air inside it. Air is much less dense than water. An object placed in water will move downward until the combined weight of the object is equal to the weight of the water it has displaced. If the object weighs more than its volume in water, it will sink. A ship is shaped such it will move enough water to displace its weight and still have surface area above sea level.

Samantha Bailey said...

The ship will stay afloat because it weighs less than the water it displaces so it stays afloat. The ship would have to have no holes or pump out more water than the ship takes in to also stay afloat.

Dana Ulrich said...

The ship will float because it is designed to displace water easily. As the ship moves, it displaces an amount of water that weighs the same amount as the ship. When the ship displaces the water, the water that is below the ship pushes the ship upward, which makes the ship float. Also, the air that is inside the ship makes the ship float much more easily because air is much less dense than water.

Marek Buckman said...

I think that a ship made out of steel would float (including passengers and cargo) would float because Archimedes (the guy from ancient Greece who discovered the principal for why boats float) stated that the weight of water displaced must be equal to the weight of the object. So if the boat, passengers, and cargo displace enough water to create enough upthrust, it would float.

Kevin Weimer said...

The ship full of people and cargo will float because of the density of the boat. Most of the boat has air in it and the combined density of the air and steal (or whatever the boat is made out of) is less the the density of water.

Lauren Sigurdson said...

I think that that the ship will float because of its mass and buoyancy. Since the mass of the boat is less than the water surrounding it, it will use its mass to displace against the mass of the water and make it equal. It will also float with the help of the upward motion caused by fluid pressure, called buoyancy. Even with all of the people weighing the boat down, the buoyancy and the mass being displaced against the water, keeps the boat floating on the surface.

Morgan Handwerker said...

I think that the ship will stay afloat because it has less mass then the surrounding water. It is a great example of displacement because there is so much surrounding water that the displacement it not enough for it to sink.

Haylee Santos said...

The reason that the ship will float is because it lets out water to balance out the eight on the ship. As the water displaces the ship moves up more on top of the water. This is called buoyancy. Buoyancy is the power to float or rise in a fluid.

Josh Sussman said...

The reason as to why a ship with a greater density than water will float has to do with Achimedes's Buoyancy Principle. Which basically states that since a ship displaces the equivalent amount of water as it weighs it will stay afloat as long as the ship is shaped to displace its own weight in water without sinking. In other words, every time more weight is added to a boat it begins to submerge deeper into the water because more water is being displaced and the buoyancy force continues to match the load of the ship.

Josh Rosenkranz said...

A gigantic ship made mainly of steel will float on water because a boat on water gets pushed up with an equal force to the amount of water it has displaced. If a boat weighs 100 pounds, it will sink into the water until it has displaced 100 pounds of water. If the boat displaces 100 pounds before it is completely underwater, it floats. To make a boat float, all the designer needs to do is make sure that the weight has been displaced before the boat is completely submerged. This is easy to do, because the inside of a boat has much air in it. This means that the average density of the steel and air that make up a boat is less than the average density of water, causing the boat to float.

Molly Weaver said...

The ship floats because of the displacement of water. An object in a fluid experiences an upward force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object, so when boats float, they're being forced upwards by the water it's forcing down, so as long as the boat fills in the space in the water it's taking up before it sinks, it'll float. It also has a bit to do with how the boat's shaped, but it's more about how the boat's density, steel and air, is lighter than the average density of the water, making it easier to float

Colin Deveny said...

The ship will float because when a boat enters water it displaces the water around it. When water is displaced the boat that entered the body of water is now lighter. The more weight put onto the boat means that the boat is getting heavier and the bottom of the boat is now going lower into the water. Soon enough when the boats edges go under water then it will sink. This is why some boats have certain limits of people and weight that can be on a boat at a time.

alex towers said...

A steel ship will float because of its density.

Sammy Reategui said...

The boat will float because it's average density is not as large as the waters average density because the water is a lot larger than the boat so when the boat goes in the water it displaces the water. The amout of water that is displaced is more than the actual boat weighs so the boat can float

Clara Shrier said...

The ship will float because it weighs less than all of the water around it. Also, it is positlvly bouyant. If it was neutrally or negativly bouyant, it would sink. Because it is positivly bouyant, it will stay on the surface and float.

David Ringel said...

According to the Greek Mathematician and Inventor, Archimedes, the ship will float because the weight of the water the ship displaces is equal to the weight of the ship. Furthermore, the ship floats because of the buoyancy principle. This is also why when you see cranes loading cargo onto ships at the harbor the ship appears to sink, it is really only displacing more water, because the more weight on the boat the more water it displaces to be able to stay afloat.

Tom Hayes said...

The ship floats because of the water that it displaces when it enters the water. The boat pushes so much water out of the way that it is actually lighter than the water that is displaces. But,if you add more and more weight, the boat with eventually become heavier than the water it displaces.

Hannah Perl said...

The boat will float because the boat's mass is less than the water's mass. The water density is less than the boat's density. The boat pushes through the water with force so that it stays afloat and not sink.

Adam Wrobel said...

The ship will float because of its shape; which is similar to a bowl. The relationship between both objects, the bowl and the boat, is that they both hold something. A bowl can hold different kinds of food, while a boat holds air within the bowl. Anything that has air in it will float because air is lighter than water, so if air is trapped in the ship, and there is a good design to help it float, then the boat will float due to displacement of the water by the ship.

Sophie Rodriguez said...

The ship will float because the weight of the water that the ship displaces is the same as the weight of the ship. Buoyancy is an upward acting force caused by fluid pressure that opposes the ship's weight. The ship displaces a lot of water so it is able to float.

Cameron Macpherson said...

I believe that the ship floats because the steel part sinks, but then when the water reaches the air in the ship, it floats. If you picture a boat, the bottom half is in the water. Air is less dense than water, therefore it does not sink.

Clay Lesniak said...

The reason a fully loaded ship will float in water is, ships displace more water than they weigh. The unique shape of boats causes this displacment. The force of the water the ship displaces creates an upward thrust that keeps the boat afloat.

Noah Machlin said...

The density of a ship is less then the density of the water around it. Archimedes’ Principle states, " An object immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight that the fluid displaces". This means that the weight of the huge ship is afloat because there is an equal rebound weight the water pushes back. Also the ship floats because the shape, because the weight will make the ship sink but only until the weight is equaled out.

Jacob Taglianetti said...

The ship because it is full of air. The air will keep it floating on the water. This is because air is less dense then water. Because there is so much air space in the boat it will stay afloat. Now, if there were crack in the boat the water will rush in and sink the boat because the mass of the water would weigh more then the air space. Therefore that is why boats float.

Olivia Stauber said...

The ship will float because it displaces the amount of water that is the same as it's own weight. The ocean returns the pressure of the boat, making it buoyant.

STEVE SALINAS said...

The ship will float cause of its mass and its mass is lower than water. And because it has air and that would keep it floating above water.

Jake Weimer said...

The ship will float becaue the ship dispalaces lots of water. With the water dispalaced and the motor running the ship can easily glide through the water which has a larger mass than the ship.

Joe Eidelman said...

The boat will float because all of the water surrounding the ship is more dense then the ship itself. It will also float because the ship has air space. Almost anything that is hollow will float in water.

Aron Goodwin said...

The reason that the ship will float is because it weighs less than the water it displaces. Also, the ship is filled with air, air is less dense than water, so it floats.

Evan Kaspi said...

The ship floats because it is lighter than the water it displaces. The water pushes up with the force of the water that was displaced, so if the ship is lighter than the water it displaced, then the force of the water pushing up will over come the weight of the boat, which is pushing down, and keep the boat afloat.

Sofia Porta said...

A large boat with a density greater than water will still stay afloat. This is because the boat sinks into water until water weighing as much as it is displaced. In example, a boat that weighs 1000 lbs will sink into the water until 1000 lbs of water has moved aside and surrounded the boat. In this way, the boat weighs the same as the water and does not sink down into it. The more people and weight is added on, the lower the boat will sink. Boats are specifically designed in weight so they will not be too heavy where they will sink.

Olivier Innocent said...

the will float on the water because the water as a density greater than the ship. even if the ship has a density of 7.8g/ml the water of the ocean is greater. imagine that the water of the ocean times the density of the water by a 1,000 and ad the density of salt would be a massive amount of density. the ship will float, believe it or not its true.

Isa Kaminsky said...

The ship will float because it is built a certain way so that it will displace more water than it weighs. Because the density of the ship is more than the density of the water, in order for the ship to float, it has to have buoyancy. The ship isn't made completely of steel, it has some air inside of it too. So, it can displace its weight worth of water without submerging all the way.

Charlie Maher said...

The ship will float because the ship is hollow. the ship has less mass than that of the entire ocean. This is bouncy. The ship is full of air which allows it to stay afloat and not sink to the bottom. Even added with a million people the ship would stay afloat because it has air space. Of course it would go a little bit lower in the water because it displaces the water.

Kevin Gerbie said...

The ship stays afloat instead of sinking because it displaces as much water as it weighs. Even if you add more weight to the ship it will still float, but appear as if it is sinking because it has to displace more water, because more weight was added to it. The ship is buoyant, thus staying afloat in the water, even though it weighs more than 1g/ml.

Gabrielle Montalbano said...

The large boat will float because of how it is built. It is built so it may displace a greater amount of water than the ship's weight. The water's pressure helps to keep it afloat. The boat pushes down on the water, while the water pushes upward. The ship moves upward, on top of the water. This is called positively buoyant because it floats. An object that doesn't float is called negatively buoyant.

Allie McCallion said...

The ship will float because the ship displaces the amount of water it weighs. While the weight of the boat pushes down into the water, the displaced water pushes up. The ship also has to have buoyancy and stability to float in water.

Thomas Burt said...

The reason the ship does not sink is because there is a large bubble of air inside of it, air has a lower density than water, so it keeps the ship afloat. The reason part of the ship is below water level is because there is not enough air at that hight to make the difference of the density o the steel.

Amanda Peraud said...

The steel ship will float in water because the steel is shaped into a boat displacing more water than its mass making it more buoyant. This is due to the Archimedes principle.

Alana Bercu said...

A boat will float and not sink in the water because of buoyancy. Buoyancy is the force that pushes upward while gravity pushes downward. If the density of the boat was 7.8 g/ml the boat should sink but it doesn't. This is because as gravity is pushing the boat downward into the water buoyancy is doing the opposite evening it out allowing the boat to float on the water.

Katie Wilcher said...

The ship will not sink because it is displacing more then its own weight when it is afloat. Even though boats can weigh a lot, they hold a lot of air therefore, having a low density. However, when a boat has a leak it is a big problem because the water replaces the air and the density becomes much greater. Eventually,
The boat's density will pass 1 g/ml and will not be able to float any longer.

Grace Anne Latimer said...

The reason a boat does not sink in water is because of buoyancy. When the wieght of the water the ship displaces equals the weight of the ship anything will float if it is shaped to displace its own weight of water before it reaches the point where it will submerge. If the wieght of the boat does not equal the weight the water the ship displaces the boat will sink.

Julia Levin said...

The reason why the ship will float is because he buoyancy principle. A ship is going to float if they weight of the water that was displaced by the ship, ways as much as the ship. So, every time more cargo is put on, more of the water is displaced causing it to always float.

Andrew Sigurdson said...

A ship mostly made of steel will float for one obvious reason. This reason is the fact that a ship is less dense than water. If and item has less density than 1 gram than it will float if it has more than one gram it will sink. A boat has a lot of air inside the steel and is much less dense than water so this will balance out the density so that it is not more than 1 gram.

Alexis Aschkenase :) said...

The reason that a steel ship will float is displacement. This means that if a, let's say, 2,000 pound ship is on the water, it will have to displace 2,000 pounds of water so that the density will equal out, and it will float. Plus, the density of a boat is not very much because though the outside of a boat is steel, all the rest is pretty much just air.

Katherine Rhea said...

The ship will stay afloat because the boats mass is evened out so it can stay above water.

Rebecca Rhee said...

This ship will float, because it is made and designed to diplace water. Which will also be made to displace more than its mass. In other words, the more heavier a ship gets, the more water it must displace to stay afloat. So, when you lower a ship into the ocean, the ship displaces a certain volume of water, and in return pushes back on the ship with an amount of force equal to the weight of the displaced water. Scientists call this the buoyant force. As long as this buoyant force is equal to or greater than the weight of the ship, it will counteract the downward push of the ship's weight and keep the vessel afloat. In addition, the extra weight from the cargo and passengers pushes the ship deeper into the water, which displaces more water and increases the buoyant force. Most of the time, extra weight actually helps a ship remain stable. The weight gives the ship a lower center of gravity and the point around, and also the pull of gravity is greater near the base than the top, so the ship is less likely to topple over.

Maddie Knight said...

The law of buoyancy, discovered by Archimedes, states that "any material or object immersed in a fluid will tend to rise through the
fluid if the fluid density is greater than the material density." Why is this? The object will rise in the fluid because it displaces it's own weight in the fluid. A boat needs to displace it's own weight in water quickly so it doesn't sink. Because of this, boats are built in such a way that there is a lot of air space in it. So, the steel boat would float becaus it would not be made of solid steel, because that would not be able to displace fast enough.

Ian Michelson said...

The ship floats on the water even though it is more dense than the water because the ship uses its weight to displace about the same amount of water around it in the body of water. The second the boat is on the water not touching the ground, the boat will dip a little bit, but because of all of the water around and under it, it will float. The reason is because once it is on the water, it is now lighter than the water it just displaced.If you keep on adding extra weight the boat will eventually sink, that is why there is a max capacity on many boats.

Jackie Perelman said...

A ship made of steel will float because the inside of the ship is filled with air, and air has less density than water. The steel may weigh more than the water, but the air on the inside weighs less, making the weight balance out.

David Perl said...

The reason that the boat floats is because of it's density. Water's density is 1.0 g/ml. If any given object has a density lower than 1.0, then it will float. If an object has a density higher than 1.0 g/ml, then it will sink. Therefore, you can make a conclusion that the steel ship has a density lower than 1.0. The people who manufactured this boat obviously have to know how to make a boat float, and the answer to that is density.

Jason Schwartz said...

The ship will float because it displaces an amount of water equivalent to the volume of the part of the ship submerged in the water. The water it displaces will actually act as a force pushing against the boat. It will make the boat seemingly lose an amount of mass equal to the amount of water the boat displaced.

Julia Siebert said...

The ship will float on water, even though that it is more dense then water because of buoyancy. A ship will float when the weight of the water it displaces equals the weight of the ship. Anything will float if it is shaped to displace its own weight of water before it reaches the point where it will sink.

Matthew Horvitz said...

The ship will float because all of the water has more mass than the ship. Also the ship displaces a lot of water. The ship is moving too so it will stay afloat just like when you are swimming you stay afloat. The boat goes underwater a little bit but this is why they have a capacity of weight and people.

Carrie DiLeonardi said...

A gigantic ship made mainly of steel will float because the ship has less mass then the water surrounding it. Also, the ship will float because ships use their weight to displace the equivalent amount of water when they go into the ocean, and when the ship is in the ocean it becomes buoyant. The air that is inside the ship also makes the ship float easier because air is much less dense then water.

Margaret Gonikman said...

Even though a gigantic ship made out of steel weighs more than 1.0g/ml it will not sink. The steel ship will not sink because it is hollow and displaces a lot of water. In fact more than the ship actually weighs. If the ship were to be submerged under water it would sink because the water would pour inside and the ship would no longer be displacing the water.

Aaron Pickard said...

The ship will float because of buoyancy. An object that is not as dense as a liquid or has a relatively hydrodynamic shape (like a boat) can be kept on the surface of the liquid because of buoyancy. However, this may occur only during a situation in which gravity is exerted on the object and liquid. If the net force of buoyancy pushing upward is equal to the amount of weight of liquid displaced by the object (boat), the object (boat) will float.

Alex Greenberg said...

The ship will float because the ship will displace the water around the boat equaling the density to 1g/ml. The displacement happens because of the curved side of the boat, and the point at the bow pushing the water to the side. The curved edges of the boat actually make the water's density less than the ships density, creating the boat to float.

Dante Chakravorti said...

The ship will float because it displaces an equal amount of water to it's own weight so that when the boat is placed on water the water pushes back a little bit causing this boat to float. This concept is called buoyancy which is essentially what allows the boat to float. If the boat were to be completely submerged it would sink instead of floating because the buoyancy level would be zero because the water would be pushing on top of the boat forcing it down.

Sam Berman said...

The ship will float because it has buoyancy. This means that the ship has the power to stay afloat because of it's design. The ship is designed to displace the water. When the ship displaces the water it causes pressure on the water molecules to push up against the ship. In conclusion, the ship will stay afloat because it displaces the water.

David Hammes said...

The boat will remain buoyant because it displaces more water then the ship weighs, which keeps the ship afloat. The ship also becomes lighter than the water. Buoyancy also pushes up against the boat to keep it from sinking.

Maddie Sabo said...

In order for something to sink it needs to be more than 1 g/ml. And in order for it to be more than 1 it needs to have more mass. A gigantic ship with a lot of mass with all the steel and people and cargo will sink. But if the boat has a lot of volume, it will hold the boat up in the water.

Arden Lapin said...

A boat will float even with many people and cargo on it. The amount of weight that the boat is, is the same amount of weight that is being pushed from underneath to the sides of a boat. The more people and cargo the boat has, the more the boat is being pushed down.

Arden Lapin said...

A boat will float even with many people and cargo on it. The amount of weight that the boat is, is the same amount of weight that is being pushed from underneath to the sides of a boat. The more people and cargo the boat has, the more the boat is being pushed down.

Gianluca Guadagno said...

The ship will float because it has ballast tanks in it are full of air and that coupled with the fact that the boat is moving leaves the boat able to float. The ballast tank's air evens out with the weight of the boat and therefore,makes it less dense than water.

Eric Hoffman said...

Ships usually have lots of air inside the hull. Air's density is less than water's. Therefore, it floats.

Grayson Schiller said...

The ship will float because it is less dense then the water that it displaces.At first it may sink slightly in the water, but the water will quickly displace from its original location from where the boat was.

Noah Kraus said...

The ship will keep floating because all the pressure under the boat will keep it floating and the ship is also moving as well.

Ryan Lane said...

A gigantic ship made of mainly steel can float safely on water because of buoyancy. Buoyancy is the upward force of displaced water on an object. If a large object is placed on a body of water, it will float as long as the amount of displaced water weighs more than the weight of the object. Other factors such as the force of gravity and the shape and hollowness of an object also affect whether an object will float. This is why a steel ship holding tons of cargo and hundreds of passengers floats

Susannah Miller said...

Heavy, steel ships are able to float in water because the weight of the water they displace is equal to the weight of the ship. Therefore, the ship is not adding any additional weight and is able to float ontop of the water.

Natalie Robbins said...

The ship will float because the bottom of the ship has a wide enough area to allow it to. The wider the bottom of an object is, the more water will push against it. When the water pushes against it, the ship floats.

Kennedy Silverman said...

A ship made mainly of steel will float in water easily rather than sinking because the water has a larger mass than the ship. When the boat is placed into the water, the water becomes displaced, meaning the boat becomes lighter than the water.

Kate Hoskins said...

A ship would not sink because the ship is constructed so that the density of the ship will be lighter then the water around it. Also, the boat is pushing down on the water and the water is pushing up. The water pushes up harder than the pushes down and so the boat floats. This is called Buoyancy or Bouyant force.

Anonymous said...

No matter how heavy an object is if it displaces enough water it will float.it displaces more water than it actually weighs

miles rice said...

When you put a large vessel into the water it displaces the water underneath it and the heavier the boat the more water is displaces and the lower the boat gets to the water.

Adam Jacobs said...

The ship will float because of the water it displaces. Since the ship's density is less than water's, the ship will displace enough water to equal its mass. Also, since the boat is built with a big surface area on the bottom, the water can push the boat up, floating it.

Justin Zaslavsky said...

The boat will float for a few reasons. The first one is the density. the water is more dense than the steal, making the ship float. The second reason is displacement. The water displaces its weight making the ship stay afloat

Zach Goldner said...

A gigantic ship made out of steel would float because it has less mass then an ocean. Also because of the displacement method the boat displace the equivalent amount of water the ship takes up allowing the boat to float.

Noah Lowenstein said...

The Ship will float for a couple of reasons. 1st, the ship will float because the ship has air in it and i=air is much less dense than water. Also,even though the water is less dense, the weight of the water weighs more then the ship therefore, the ship will displace the same amount of water as its weight and float.

Anonymous said...

The boat will float because of its density. If its density is less than water it will float beacuase it is more compacted than the water. also the motor hels the boat to keep runnning

Jordanixjf said...

A ship made of steel will float because the inside of the ship is filled with air, and air has less density than water. The steel may weigh more than the water, but the air on the inside weighs less, making the weight balance out.