BUOYANCY
January 29, 2024
After hearing a specific news story over the past weekend, I began thinking about the concept of buoyancy and the ability to float objects that are heavier than water. I'm pretty sure we skipped over this chapter in Physics class way back when, because I don't recall anything about Buoyancy Forces and Archimedes' Principle. Even if we had covered it, after engaging in a quick refresher before writing this, it seems more like a volume displacement concept intended primarily for a closed environment where you can accurately measure changes, as opposed to situations in the open ocean, for example. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this!…)
Still, if you know the estimated mass / weight of an object, it seems you should be able to calculate what's required to make it float to the surface using various methods. As I implied in the first paragraph, I'm writing this on the fly & I haven't researched any equations for attempting such an effort, and since my background isn't in engineering, I don't even know if there are any relevant formulas in this case.
However, I still marvel at how far we've come when it comes to attempting to master the seas. Obviously, the ocean will always be unpredictable to some extent and it's foolhardy to take lightly the inherent dangers involved with deep water or strong currents. But from simple poolside flotation devices to the latest multi-level cruise ships, we've come a long way from our first encounters into the water.