How does a big steel ship float?
Drop a steel nail in water and it sinks. Hammer the same steel into a hollow boat and it floats, because it pushes aside its own weight in water. Scale that hollow hull up and you get a real cargo ship, still mostly air inside.
Transcript
A steel nail. Will it float? Nope, straight to the bottom. Water pushes on it from every side. A bit harder from below.
That push = weight of water it moved. Steel is 8x heavier, so it sinks. Same amount of steel, new shape. Hammer it into a thin sheet.
Fold it into a hollow boat. Now set it on the water. It sinks a bit, pushing water aside. Here's all the water it moved.
It weighs as much as the whole boat. So the push up matches: it floats! Inside, the hull is mostly air. Real ships work the exact same way.
A thin steel shell, mostly air inside. Just like our little tin boat. Empty, it floats high. Cranes stack on hundreds of boxes.
It sinks lower, pushing aside more water. That water weighs as much as the ship. Push aside your weight in water, and you float.
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