|Archimedes Principle lesson from Titanic|
|Posted on Mon 01 Aug 2005 (69580 reads)|
The lecturer "Peter J. Yonko" from Newark said in his lesson that
The producers of the film recreated Titanic with great detail. The audience was able to understand what was happening to the ship after she struck the iceberg because of the computer-generated images of her sinking. Mr. Andrews was certain of Titanic's demise because he knew ArchimedesÃƒâ€¢ principle. With more than four compartments flooded, it was physically impossible for Titanic to stay afloat.
It is known that a hard subject like Physics is hard to learn without case studies on real life examples. In this case, Titanic is the real life example and the lecrurer said that the movie had made a good deal of effort to bringing back to life the sinking before her demise.
In this example, the Titanic facts are used as follows:
In order to relate the Titanic and ArchimedesÃƒâ€¢
principle, some specific information about the Titanic
must be known. First, the hull was designed to
displace (push away) 66,000 tons of water. Its gross
weight was 46,328 tons. Therefore, the Titanic had
19,672 tons (66,000 tons ÃƒÂ 46,328 tons) of extra
displacement capacity. If Titanic lost more than
19,672 tons of displacement capacity, her gross
weight would exceed her buoyant force and Titanic
would sink. The hull was divided into 16
compartments separated by 15 watertight bulkheads.
For my purposes in the classroom, I make what I
believe to be a reasonable generalization: that each
compartment of the hull has the same displacement
capacity: 4,125 tons (66,000 tons/16 compartments).
It is recommended for further reading to read this article using Acrobat read or or alternatives:
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Posted: 2006/1/30 11:09 Updated: 2006/2/4 15:38
From: Georgia, U.S.
Thank you for the elementary physics lesson; I hadn't ever
looked at the mathematical relationship. I appreciate your