Eli5 how do cargo ships not tip over? Aren’t they super top heavy?
In: 195
The shops are quite stable, whilst there’s ballasting and load calculations that I’m sure have to be done, the common misconception is that a cargo ship just has a flat deck with containers sitting on top which makes it too heavy.
The simple fact is, the ship is very heavy at the bottom too, as there is an internal cargo deck.
Here’s a simple diagram: https://media.istockphoto.com/id/479586322/vector/container-ship-section.webp?s=612×612&w=is&k=20&c=j7adXTP_LKTUu-4farzQVf9iWM1TErJmO46Y_ZPrcYo=
The biggest risk is if the front falls off, but that very rarely happens.
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