Just how big was the Ark?

Question

Many christians have answered previous questions saying they still believe this story so this is aimed at them.
1)If the ark was made of wood how did it not collapse under it's own weight?
2)Did Noah also gather 2 of every fish and saltwater dwelling animal that couldn't survive the desalinization?
3)How did all the plants survive underwater or did Noah also take these?

Amazing how many of you can give a actual answer on the size,but then conveniently ignore the latter points of the question.

OMG,Q&A Queen where did you go to school?

Answer 1

I'm not a Christian and I'm not at all sure about the story, but in all things I like to keep an open mind and consider all evidence put forward - for and against! What a very dull existence people must have when they close their minds to all possibilities - these are what makes life interesting! Anyway, this is the evidence For!! Genesis 6:15 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). According to Genesis 6:16, it was three stories high and 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. (I think this answers your query re stability!). Remember too, that it was built more for floating than sailing, because it wasn't headed anywhere - durability, not speed, was the requirement. It must also be assumed that not every variation of each animal species had to be included, only two of each, eg., 2 cows, 2 goats, etc.,
* Genesis 7:14,15; 21-23 tells us that only land-dwelling, air-breathing animals and birds were on the Ark. Many estuarine and tidepool species are able to tolerate wide changes in salinity. Starfish will tolerate 16-18% of the normal concentration of sea salt indefinitely. Barnacles can withstand exposure to less than one-tenth the usual salt concentration of seawater. There are migratory species of fish which travel between salt and fresh water. For example, salmon, striped bass and Atlantic sturgeon spawn in freshwater and mature in saltwater. Eels reproduce in saltwater and grow to maturity in freshwater streams and lakes. The Atlantic sturgeon is a migratory salt/freshwater species, and there are a number of other species that thrive in both salt and fresh water. Aquatic mammals such as whales and dolphins would have been well-placed to survive the Flood, not being dependent on clean water to breathe. Many marine creatures would have been killed in the Flood because of the turbidity of the water, changes in temperature, etc. The fossil record testifies to the massive destruction of marine life with 95% of the fossil record accounted for by marine creatures.
* As for land plants, many terrestrial seeds can survive long periods of soaking in various concentrations of salt water (Howe, 1968, CRSQ:105-112) and others could have survived in floating masses. Many could have survived as accidental and planned food stores on the ark. (Ironically, Charles Darwin himself performed experiments floating snails on, and submerging seeds in, salt water, convincing him that they could have survived long sea voyages on driftwood and the like).

Answer 2

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 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.

Answer 3

Dear,

Just how big was the Ark. The size of the Ark.

Length: 600 Meters
Width : 300 Meters
Height : 30 Meters
Age of the woods: 100 years
Name of the tree: Snowbar
The Ark are made from Snowbar Wood aged 100 years.
The Ark are in three storey:
a. First Storey; Land Animals
b. 2nd Storey; Human Beings
c. 3rd Storey; All birds. The basement for all the waste material of the animals.

Answers;

1. Noah was been taught by God. The Ark is perfect.
2. Noah did not gather any animal or fish. All representative of animals are sent by God to aboard Noah' Ark.
3. That was not noted. Only God sent two kind of birds for reconnaissance. The Hawk and Pigeon. Hawk fail the mission because forget her task when meet remains of animals. Pigeon came back with Zaitun leave indicated all land are under water.

Answer 4

If it is true it is probably the story of Gilgamesh retold. The boat would be quite big but not big enough, or fast enough for that matter, to contain two of every creature in the world. The latest thinking is that story arose from the flooding of the black sea when a natural dam separating it from the Mediterranean gave way allowing a great surge of water in. There is sound evidence that at one time the water level was a lot lower. So it is possible that a tribal leader witnessed the rapid rising waters and organised a the building of a boat and put a number of "local" animals on it so saved himself and his family and their goods and animals. The story would have been told and retold and of course since those people did not know how bit the world was they may well say the flood covered all the earth. That is what happens with stories like that Some Christians believe all the bible is true because people tend to believe what they want to believe not what is actually true

Answer 5

In size the ark was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. Conservatively calculating the cubit as 44.5 cm (17.5 in.) (some think the ancient cubit was nearer 56 or 61 cm), the ark measured 133.5 m by 22.3 m by 13.4 m (437 ft 6 in. × 72 ft 11 in. × 43 ft 9 in.), less than half the length of the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2. This proportion of length to width (6 to 1) is used by modern naval architects. This gave the ark approximately 40,000 cu m (1,400,000 cu ft) in gross volume. It is estimated that such a vessel would have a displacement nearly equal to that of the mighty 269-m (883 ft) Titanic of this 20th century. No cargo vessel of ancient times even slightly resembled the ark in its colossal size. Internally strengthened by adding two floors, the three decks thus provided gave a total of about 8,900 sq m (96,000 sq ft) of space.

Answer 6

The Bible says it was 300 cubits long. That is about 450 feet. I forget the exact other dimensions, but I think it was somewhere around 45'x75'x450'. As you say, it would collapse in the sea if not before, because the Bible said it was all wood. The Bible's authors did not realize that sea creatures and plants would be killed by a flood. Oh well, the tale is so full of errors that a few more matter little. The tale is just a copy of the earlier Sumerian tale of Utnapishtim whose boat was 4 times bigger than Noah's was.

Answer 7

The Ark is supposedly 450 feet long by 75 feet wide by 45 feet tall ..some wooden Chinese sailing junks in the past have been noted as being 400 feet long and 150 feet wide. If God can design and engineer a universe, a wooden boat should be no problem. http://www.amendez.com/Noahs%20Ark%20Articles/NAS%20Size%20of%20the%20Ark-Handout.pdf
Check out the books at the end of the article for more detailed information---library should have them or bookstores.
http://www.ucgstp.org/lit/gn/gn047/noahsark.htm
Saltwater fish can survive for a short period in fresh water and we do not know the salinity of the oceans back then, the flood could have changed things dramatically and salt water creatures may have adapted since then.
The plant's seeds probably survived the flood waters and sprouted when everything dried off. It's also possible that God initiated their growth as in creation.

Answer 8

Well in answer to your second and third questions, before the flood there was no ocean as we know it today and there was only fresh water on the earth now when the firmament collapsed and the water came down it covered the earth with fresh water but when God established the waters from going where He didn t want them to go it made our oceans which at that time were fresh water however as the years went by the streams coming into the ocean slowly brought salinity to the ocean, and it is still doing so today and that is why the ocean is getting saltier. So the fish were able to slowly adapt to the salt water because it didn t hit them all at once. your third question is easy the flood wiped out all the plants that were growing but it didn t wipe out the seeds and when the waters receeded to become the ocean they got grounded and grew.

Answer 9

Simple answer? About the size of two football fields.

Don't you think that if God gave Adam the instructions to build the ark for the salvation of human and animal life he would have made sure the thing could float?

Uh Gibbon: Did you do the math yourself before or AFTER you started laughing?

Answer 10

the Titanic- it took years to bulid and noahs ark only took a few days it cant have been big - and the biggest ship in the world today is bigger than the ark