While I'm thinking about the stupid Ark story.?

Question

I'm wondering if anyone knows if anyone has ever sat down and actually figured out how big the Ark would actually have had to been using the number of species on Earth,their size,the room for food etc? If not I think it would be a great little problem for some math dept,I'm figuring something between the size of Manhattan to Rhode Island but I would love a better answer. Instead of proving they couldn't fit into the space need,lets figure out how much space is actually needed,it is however way above my math level or I would do it myself.

Answer 1

To cover Everest in 40 days, it would need to rain at a rate of just over 6 inches a minute for the entire period. That's over 30 feet per hour and 725 feet per day.

If anyone finds that rate believable, I have an invisible bridge to sell them.

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As for that claim above about a layer of water vapor in the atmosphere that held back UV rays and increased the human lifespan before it collapsed to cause the flood, that's completely insane.

As I calculated in another question a few minutes ago, the seas would need to rise 29,000 feet to cover Everest, the air pressure felt at sea level would be 871 times current levels, and the light levels at the Earth's surface beneath this cloud would be as dim as it is in the deepest trenches of the ocean.

I doubt the human lifespan is very long when everything is pitch black and the air pressure has ruptured every cell in your body.

Answer 2

"And God said unto Noah, . . . Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this [is the fashion] which thou shalt make it [of]: The length of the ark [shall be] three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; [with] lower, second, and third [stories] shalt thou make it. " (Gen. 6:13-16)

A cubit is the distance between an adult's elbow and tip of the finger, generally 18-inches. Most Hebrew scholars believe the cubit to have been between 17½ -21½ inches long. This means that the ark would have been 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high if the 18 inch cubit was used. If a larger cubit was used it would have been proportionately longer.

The displacement tonnage of the ark, which is the weight of water it would displace at a draught of 15 cubits, would be more than 22,000 tons. By comparison the U.S.S. Salem, a 716-foot-long heavy cruiser commissioned in 1949, has a displacement tonnage of 21,500 tons. The ark's gross tonnage which is a measure of cubic space (100 cubic feet is one gross ton) would be 15,100 tons. The ark's total volume would have been 1,518,000 cubic feet. This would equal the capacity of 569 modern railroad stock cars. The standard size for a stock car is 44 feet long and a volume of 2670 cubic feet. This would make a train more than 5 ½ miles long. The floor space for the ark would be over 101,000 square feet. This would be more floor space than 21 standard college basketball courts. By comparing the measurements of the ark it is easy to see that it would be comparable to today's ocean going vessels. It was probably the largest vessel of its type built until the late 1800's when metal ships were first constructed.

Animal Space Calculations

Most animals are not very large. The average size of all animals, is the size of a sheep, some say a small rodent. One railroad stock car can carry about 240 sheep. This would mean that all 40,000 animals could fit in 167 railroad cars. The arks total capacity was 569 stock cars. The 40,000 animals would require less than 30% of the ark's space. In other words all the animals could fit on one of the ark's three decks. This would leave the other 70% of the ark's space for Noah's family, food, supplies, and baggage.

Dimension of the Ark: 300 cubits x 50 cubits x 30 cubits. If the cubit used is 18" then conversion gives us the following dimensions: 450 ft x 75 ft x 45 ft

Deck Area of the Ark: 450 ft x 75 ft x 3 decks = 101,250 ft2

Volume of the Ark: 450 ft x 75 ft x 45 ft = 1,518,750 ft3

Answer 3

There are many people who have many different figures, but no one is just quite sure what they measured by back then, i,e, what exactly is a cubit?

Here is what someone figured out from Genesis 6:11-22:

"The ark is to be 450 feet [140 meters / 300 cubits] long, 75 feet [23 meters / 50 cubits] wide and 45 feet [14 meters / 30 cubits] high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches [1 cubit] of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks."

This site says that you can fit two modern-day Boeing 747 airliners in it.

Answer 4

The earth's surface is over 70% water. The average land elevation above sea level is 2,700ft. The average ocean depth is 12,577ft. Even a child can do the math and see there is way more than enough water.

It wasn't just 40 days of rain; Genesis tells us that the "fountains of the deep burst forth". This refers to subterranian water which can still be found. "Scientists scanning the deep interior of Earth have found evidence of a vast water reservoir beneath eastern Asia that is at least the volume of the Arctic Ocean.." (LiveScience.com)

This hydraulic catastrophe buried millions of living things. We find them today as fossils. There are marine fossils high up on Mt. Everest. It's sad how some people use fossil evidence from the flood to try to promote evolution, which is a theory in crisis.

We also find some interesting things in the earth such as human and dinosaur tracks found together, and human artifacts such as tools and jewelry in coal seams.

The evolutionist will have a hard time explaining the presence of polystrate trees. These are found vertically, standing through several strata which is supposed to span "millions" of years of geologic time. If it took millions of years to deposit these layers, then how can these trees fossilize?

The earth was different before the flood. Evidence suggest there was a vapor canopy above the earth, referenced in Genesis "a firmament to separate the waters from the waters." This would have filtered out harmful UV rays, and coupled with higher atmospheric pressure would result in longer life spans and plants and animals growing much larger.
Everything changed after the flood. Life spans were dramatically reduced.

We don't know exactly how long it took Noah and his sons to
construct the ark., but Genesis states that they had a window of opportunity of 120 years.

The vessel was immense. Depending on which cubit you use, it was a minimum of 450ft long, 75ft wide, and 45ft high - a perfect 6:1 ratio for stability. It could roll to almost 90 degrees without capsizing and could right itself.
there were three levels inside. The total volume was over 1,518,000 cubic feet of cargo space, equivalent to 595 railroad boxcars; enough to bring two of every kind of animal on board.
Genesis uses the term "kind" and not "species". There would not be enough room for every species. But all the species can come from a kind. This is not evolution, these are variations within a kind.

Why is it that there are over 200 flood legends in different cultures worldwide?

I hope the account of the ark seems less stupid now.

If people would closely examine the details for themselves without a closed mind, they might learn something.
I prefer not to check my brain at the door. I'm not going to let atheists and popular culture do my thinking for me.
Eternity is way too long to trust it to them.

Answer 5

I when at it a little different. I thought about the weight one day.

I figured out just the three species of elephants would have needed 600 tons of food. The biggest wooden ship ever only displaced 500 tons. I am over by 100 tons, not counting the weight of the 6 elephants and the ship itself.

Aircraft carries displace 24,000 tons. That wouldn't be enough I bet.

Answer 6

I am more interested to see if anyone actually sat down and read the text of the story, saw that the Flood was a local event in the Hebrew and Greek, and then compared the Biblical timetable to the archaeological record to see if there were any Sumeria-devastating floods around 3000 BC before calling the whole thing a "stupid Ark story."

Here's a tip - try doing a little research on your own. I know it takes some work, but it is SO much more reliable than that plumber named "Bob" who just happens to attend the local Southern Baptist Church.

Answer 7

I have actually seen some Christians claim that Noah had dinosaurs on board as well. That would increase the size needed considerably.

Answer 8

Genesis 6:15 in the Bible tells us the Ark's dimensions were at least 135 meters long (300 cubits), 22.5 meters wide (50 cubits), and 13.5 meters high (30 cubits). That's 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high! It could have been larger because several larger-sized cubits were used. But the 45-centimeter (18-inch) cubit is long enough to show the enormous size of the Ark.

(A cubit was the length of a man's arm from fingertips to elbow.)

Higher than a 3-story building!
Noah's Ark was three stories high (Genesis 6:16). Its total deck area was equivalent to the area of about 20 standard college basketball courts or 36 lawn tennis courts. The world had to wait until AD 1884 before the Ark's size was exceeded, when the Italian liner Eturia was built.

The rectangular dimensions of the Ark show an advanced design in ship-building. Its length of six times its width and 10 times its height would have made it amazingly stable on the ocean. Remember it was made more for floating than sailing, because it wasn't headed anywhere. The Ark was made to withstand a turbulent ocean voyage, not to be at a certain place at a certain time.

May God bless you

Answer 9

Many have tried and failed Just believe it happened.