In the news, you'll hear that a ship is a whatever-ton battleship, or a whatever-ton carrier. The Japanese whaling ship in trouble near Antarctica . . it is a 8,000 tonne ship. From what I gather, this is the water displacement of the ship (Archimedes). And of course we know how that works. But how do they find the water displacement. I suspect it is by adding some known weight. . . Any answers?
2007-02-16 08:13:12 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
When a marine architect designs a vessel he carefully calculates the volume of the shape of the ship below the design waterline. Seawater weighs 64 pounds per cubic foot. Large ships always have numbers painted up & down their hulls, which allows the calculation of their displacement to be adjusted according to how their draft changes (how heavily loaded they are).
When smaller vessels are hauled out for maintenance, the crane or travel-lift can weigh the vessel, which is equal to its displacement.
2007-02-16 08:39:55 · answer #1 · answered by Diogenes 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not even close to an expert. My guess is as follows. when the ship is floating, check the watter line. From the design of the ship you can determine the volume of the ship below the waterlne. That is the volume of water displaced.
2007-02-16 19:30:56 · answer #2 · answered by STEVEN F 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you are correct, it is the weight of the water displaced. the branch of physics you are talking about is buoyancy. another way of stating Archimedes principle is : the force of buoyancy on an object in a liquid equals the force of gravity on the liquid displaced.
they would figure out the volume of the ship below the water line (- the hull thickness) and use the density of seawater (1.03 g/cc) and "weigh" that water displaced.
2007-02-16 16:25:47 · answer #3 · answered by gramatron 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's known as the ships displacement. It also takes into consideration the specific gravity of the water (fresh or salt for ex.).
2007-02-16 16:22:27 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
When the ship was being designed, the weight going into building the ship was already being added up.
It is no different than when an airplane or spacecraft is being constructed. The weight of each component is added up during the design phase.
2007-02-16 18:04:40 · answer #5 · answered by Stan the Rocker 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
by water displacement
2007-02-16 16:21:14 · answer #6 · answered by gussie r 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋