Aircraft carriers are the strongest warships in the world. However, the bottom of these huge ships is usually wafer-thin. How is it possible that the ship with thousands of sailors can stay afloat and why is the bottom so thin?
What’s the knife-thin bottom of an aircraft carrier carried called? It is referred to as the hull. The hull’s design considers the different kinds of seas they may sail through. Since it travels across the ocean, an aircraft carrier is subject to the possibility of experiencing rough seas.
You might not expect it, but actually, the hull is not thin at all. Of course, it is thinner than the rest of the ship, but there are lots of decks below the waterline with lots of storage and facilities. Aircraft carriers, like all ships, are knife thin at the bow to cut through the water. As you move aircraft carriers are flat on the bottom. It can also look so thin because the flight deck is so flat. It has the same dimensions as the hulls of cruise ships and many others. It rises out of the water in a curved shape to balance the weight of the deck and tower.
Because of how the hull is designed, it is less probable that high waves will swamp the ship. So, how will a knife-thin bottom help a shipping scale through the sea? What it does is that it allows aircraft carriers to navigate heavy waves relatively easily.
How does such a large city stay afloat? It is very simple and at the same time almost impossible to imagine. If there is air in something, it can float. Ships float on water but nails and marbles sink. A ship is made of iron and so is a nail. A ship is heavy and a nail is light. Yet the ship floats and the nail does not. How is this possible? So that is very simple, it is air. And if there is air in anything, it can float. Try pushing a jar with a lid underwater, it comes back up. And so a big steel ship can also float, the ship is full of air.
But how can a submarine float and also sink? A special system of air chambers allows a submarine to float and sink. Water or air can be pumped into the empty chambers of the ship. This allows the crew to steer the submarine. The Navy uses submarines to get intelligence about the waters where they send warships. A submarine sails there in advance to find out what boats are there and sailing around and what they are doing there. When the submarine has gathered all the information and the coast is “safe,” the warships are sent. A submarine floats and sinks because of a special system of air chambers, think of it like swimming belts. When the submarine has to dive, the crew fills the air chambers with water so that the submarine becomes heavy and sinks. Then, when the submarine is forced to surface again, the water is squeezed out of the air chambers and it floats up by itself.
Source: Youtube NAVY Productions
