quote:
Originally posted by Kagetora:
They must displace much more water than they actually weigh in order to float.
Actually, that is not entirely true. A FLOATING body will displace a mass of water equal to the mass of the floating body. That is because the buoyancy force (specific weight of the fluid, water for ship, multiplied by the volume of water displaced by the object) must equal the weight of the floating object. SW * Volume = weight If the two forces did not equal, the object would accelerate in one direction or the other, basically it would sink.
Picture a 10,000 lbf, 1000 ft^3 object float in water. The buoyancy force must equal 10,000 lbf, otherwise it would sink. The object would have to displace approximately 10,000 lbf / 62.4 lbf/ft^3 (specific weight of water) = 160.25 ft^3 water, much less than the volum of the object itself.
Call me a geek.
