When a large ship sinks does it really suck objects floating close by down with it. If so Why ?

Question

I have often heard that when a large ship sinks it sucks down any objects or survivors that may be floating near by. If this is the case what causes it. Or indeed is it because the escaping air from the sinking ship causes the water near buy to become less dense meaning the objects near by have aparently less boyancy.
JOHN

Answer 1

The density of the water is decreased by the air bubbles escaping the sinking ship as it sinks. Strictly speaking objects do not get sucked down - they simly are too heavy to float in the water.

Answer 2

Yes ... this is the same principle as a slipstream, or the turbulence behind a truck creating a vacuum that will reduce friction for a car behind it. It probably is not that much, but when you consider a large ship and a small person it might be enough to pull the person down for longer than they could hold their breath if they did not have a life preserver on.

Basically, the ship creates a zone of low pressure above it as it sinks like a truck creates a zone of low pressure behind it as it cuts through the air.

Answer 3

They tested this on Mythbusters. A sinking ship does create some suction, although they found that it wasn't as strong as most people believe. The reason most people give is that as the ship sinks, there's nothing above it but air, and then the water comes rushing in and kind of pulls you down.

Answer 4

Displacement. The hull of large ships displaces water, the water that is displaced is replaced with the air inside the hull. As the hull is remove from that space in the water the water will return to fill the void left by the ship, this water rushing in is what you are referring to as "sucking in of objects". As the ship sinks the water will come from all side to fill the void. As the the ship sinks below the surface most of the water will come from above the ship and follow it to the bottom.
Sometime on the fact sheet of large ships they will list the displacement in tons. This is the amount of water displaced and what that much water weight.

Answer 5

Yes, as stated above. A large ship (hundreds of tons) could do this. The little boat they used on Myth Busters (one or two tons) should have included testing with some smaller objects to simulate a larger vessel sinking.

Answer 6

think of a bathtub full of water - absolute calm - then slowly lower a pint glass in until the rim is nearly level with the water.

when you give that final push see how the water cascades into the pint glass sucking everything around like a black hole into the glass - it can be quite agressive!!

multiply that up to the size of a ship and think of the same effect it has when it finally goes below the surface - all the water directly above it follows it down - everything within 200-300 yards or even more could be caught up in this and taken with the ship.

hope this helps

Answer 7

Yes. Watch the movie Titanic and see what happens when the ship finally sinks all the way.

Answer 8

THE SHIP ACTUALLY CREATES A VACUME AS IT GOES DOWN CAUSING A ALMOST TYPE OF WATERFALL FOR A COUPLE OF SECONDS GRAVITY WILL PULL THE WATER TOWARDS THE SHIP GRADUALLY THE WATER WILL FILL THE VACUME ALMOST LIKE WHEN U FORCE A GLASS INTO A TUB OF WATER

Answer 9

OMG!! that's so packed with undesirable metaphors it rather much isn't clever. Too over the superb descriptions. the 1st line isn't even a sentence. "The room is alive with zeal." is the only solid sentence. Throw out each little thing else, tone it down and write commonly. call hair, hair, no longer mane and glasses do no longer sing...

Answer 10

it all has to do with suction. like the streamlining of a car there is an area of least resistance very close to the vehicle. with a ship this lack of resistance draws whatever is around it down with it. i hope you can understand that????