Battleship Buoyancy

J. Patrick Dishaw

Citation: The Physics Teacher 48, 242 (2010); doi: 10.1119/1.3361992

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.3361992
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Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers
Battleship Buoyancy
J. Patrick Dishaw, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA

O
ne of the most dramatic demonstrations of the Ar-
chimedes principle is the simple fact that battleships
float. I estimate the depth of a battleship in seawater
as an example in my physics classes. I use the battleship Ari- L
zona as an exemplar of a class of U.S. battleships used during w
World War II. The Arizona was 608 ft (185.3 m) long and
97 ft 1 in (29.6 m) wide at its widest dimension. The unloaded
weight of the ship was 31,400 U.S. tons (2.793 108 N).1 How h
deep would the Arizona sink into seawater of density θ θ
1028 kg/m3?
Consider the sketch of the bottom of the Arizona shown in
Fig. 1. For the sake of an estimate, I will assume a triangular Fig. 1. Sketch of the bottom of a battleship.
shape for the bottom of the ship with an angle at the apex of
120.0°. The ship will descend into the seawater a depth h. The ρseaVg = M ship g →
width of the bottom of the ship at the water line will be w as
shown in Fig. 1. The depth and the width are related because
ρsea ( Lh

tan θ ) g = M ship
2

g
→ (5)
of the triangular shape: M ship g
h= .
w ρsea ( L tan θ ) g
= h tan θ → w = 2h tan θ , (1)
2
where q is ½ of the angle at the bottom, q = 60.0o. The cross- With Mship g = 2.79 3 108N, rsea = 1028 kg/m3, and L =
sectional area of the portion of the ship below the water line 185.3 m, the above relation yields h = 9.29 m (30.5 ft).
is The result compares favorably with the actual draft of the

1 1 Arizona, 8.78 m. Our calculations, though approximate,
A = wh = (2h tan θ )h = h 2 tan θ , (2) show that ships of this size need a deep-water port to dock.
2 2
and the volume is References
1. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Department of the
V = LA = Lh 2 tan θ . (3)
Navy, Naval Historical Center; www.history.navy.mil/danfs/
The battleship is in equilibrium, hence the buoyancy force of a11/arizona-ii.htm.
the seawater balances the force of gravity on the battleship:

ΣF = B − M ship g = 0 → B = M ship g . (4) J. Patrick Dishaw is a lecturer in physics at Santa Clara University.

Physics Department, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95035;
Substituting for the buoyancy force, the volume from Eq. (3),
jdishaw@scu.edu
and the weight of the battleship:

242 The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 48, April 2010 DOI: 10.1119/1.3361992