Have you ever wandered- How on earth do cruise ships float?!

If you’re anything like me, you'll have a wandering mind that is often fascinated with most things and always amazed! So on my recent trip to Southampton to board the Aurora, I was- surprise, surprise- amazed at how big she was. And then I looked across the port to see the independence of the seas. Wow! She really is huge. My little clogs were chugging away wandering with all the facilities on board and the architecture that’s involved - how on earth do they float! It’s just amazing!

Well here is the answer, friends. A little bit of science on a Monday never hurt anyone!

Apparently it’s all down to buoyancy and displacement. What does that mean then? I hear you whisper.

WELL, ships are designed to displace the amount of water equivalent to their own mass. Now let that digest a minute..... I had to read it a few times!

It means that the pressure of the ocean pushes up on the bottom of the boat and keeps the ship afloat, or buoyant. This counters the downward force of the vessel's gravity, thereby helping it float on the water's surface.

This basic idea is often referred to as Archimedes' Principle.

According to this principle, an item floats when it displaces more than its own weight of the liquid that it's immersed in. The surrounding fluid pushes back with a force equal to that of the amount displaced, so when the two are equal- whala- the object floats!

Still, even though I understand this scientific fact, it is massively amazing. Don’t you think?!