How Do Boats Float?
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What is "buoyancy"?
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Buoyancy is a term that is used to describe what happens to an object in water. It has to do with weight, force and gravity. When a boat is launched into a body of water, for example, much of the water in its path is pushed aside. You see evidence of this by the waves or even the wake. After the boat is afloat, the wake diminishes, but there are still forces at work. Under this circumstance, a certain amount of water is displaced by the boat. It gets pushed aside. What this means in terms of buoyancy is that the amount of water that is displaced, or pushed aside, will determine how well or poorly the boat will float. Simply, the amount of water displaced by the boat's volume. Between the nooks and crannies--any three dimensional object has volume.
Loose Lips Do not Sink Ships--Decreased Buoyancy Does
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A boat will float as long as there is a force pushing it upward. As soon as the force diminishes, the boat will most likely sink. When a boat takes on water, the force that kept the boat up in the first place gets redistributed. Once that happens, you need to equalize the balance of both the boat itself and the body of water it is floating in. People generally do this with sump pumps. As a boat's volume increases, the buoyancy decreases--this results in sinking.
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Effects of Salt on Buoyancy
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When a body of water does not have any salt in it, this may have a serious effect on whether a boat will float. Fresh water has a different composition than does sea or salt water, for example. Some boats will float in fresh water, while others will not. This all has to generally do with how water is displaced. A body of salt water increases a boat's buoyancy--it will float. A body of fresh water will, in some circumstances, not generate enough force on a boat to create enough buoyancy--it will sink.
The Dead Sea
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Certain portions of the world have rivers and lakes that have very high concentrations of minerals and other chemicals that seriously affect buoyancy. In the Dead Sea, for example, anything will float. This is because it has a very high concentration of salt. Salt always increases buoyancy. According to a recent report by CBS News, the water content of the Dead Sea is diminishing. This will cause the remaining water to eventually become even more buoyant. Simply, all boats will float on the Dead Sea.
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Comments
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trying to do a science project! :(
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how does the weight of a boat effect the buoyancy of it?
