How Does a Canoe Stay Afloat?
Other People Are Reading
-
Buoyancy
-
A canoe (or for that matter, any other kind of boat) floats--even if it's made out of materials that would normally sink, like metal or stone--because of a scientific concept known as "buoyancy." This principle is accredited to Archimedes, and the basic concept is that water exerts its own pressure on any object within it--in essence, the water pushes back on the boat.
Shape and Displacement
-
Of course, water will put pressure on any object within it--not just boats. However, that object will float if it is shaped in such a way that it displaces enough water to equal the object's weight before it becomes fully submerged. This is because displacement is based on an object's density, rather than its weight. A cube of solid steel is denser than water, so it will sink because per square inch, it puts more pressure on the water than the water puts on it. However, if that same piece of steel is made hollow, it will become an object with a much lower density. Once its density is less than the density of the water, it will float.
-
Holes and Weight
-
A steel canoe with holes in it will, of course, sink. This is because a hole in the canoe causes it to fill up with water, and once it's full of water, rather than air, it is no longer an object with low density. Similarly, a canoe that is overloaded with weight will have a greater density and will sink to the point that it fills with water, sinking both because of the water and the weight of what is already in the boat.
Other Floating Objects
-
Though they may not be shaped like a boat, all other objects that float in water will do so because of the same scientific principle. Materials like foam and wood will float because they are porous and contain air, while oil floats in water because it has a lower density at a molecular level. A human body floats in water because in addition to being made up of water, it's made of oils and other less-dense-than-water materials (gasses in the digestive system, air in the lungs, etc.).
-
