Why massive steel ships don’t sink straight to the bottom of the ocean?

-Karthik Gurumurthy

It all comes down to this cool concept called buoyancy. Basically, when something’s in water, there’s this upward force from the water pushing against it from all sides.

You might wonder, “Wait a minute… how the heck does a giant steel ship float when steel is like 8 times heavier than water?” That’s the million-dollar question!

The secret is all about the air! The hull of the ship is filled with air, and air is crazy light compared to water – like 816 times lighter! So when you look at the whole package – the steel shell plus all that air inside – the average density of the entire ship ends up being less than water. That’s the magic trick that keeps it floating!

It’s all based on Archimedes’ principle (that old Greek dude was smart!). When something’s in water, it loses weight equal to the weight of the water it pushes aside. Whether something floats or sinks depends on its density compared to water.

Think of it like a wooden cube weighing 50 pounds. When you put it in water, it’ll only sink deep enough to displace 50 pounds of water. Since wood is less dense than water, part of it stays above the surface.

The same principle works for ships – they’re just cleverly designed to trap enough air inside their steel hulls to make their overall density less than water. Pretty genius when you think about it!