How do big ass ships like aircraft carriers actually float on water while carrying the weight of aircraft, engines, controls, etc?
In: Engineering
Water is actually really quite heavy. So there’s that. But even more important: steel ships, even aircraft carriers, aren’t one thick-ass solid hunk of steel— they’re hollow.
So this big honkin’ monster hollow steel bubble pushes SO much water out of its place, that if you weighed all of the water it pushes away, that water (which, remember, is actually really quite heavy) would weigh lots more than the ship. More, in fact, than the ship, the crew, all their crap and every boat and airplane stowed aboard.
However, the minute you put more weight aboard a floating object than the weight of the water it pushes away— guess what happens? It sinks.
This is how things float.
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