The things can weigh like 50,000 tons and they do not sink?! a little rock will sink but a freaking boat wont?

idk l is not that smart

l think it is because the ship has a higher surface area than the rock and plus ocean water is very dense so it will float.

If u put a fork, spoon or another metal object in a bathtub, it will definitely sink.

Then how do the enormous metal ships in the Inner Harbor — which weigh a lot more than a kitchen utensil — stay afloat?

Well, the answer is based on the idea of water displacement.

When u climb in to the bathtub, the water rises because ur body is taking up space. Similarly, when a ship is placed in water, it makes the water level rise, although u would never notice it!

The logic behind this principle is that ships float when the weight of the water displaced is exactly the same as their own. The ship would sink if it was small but weighed a lot, like a brick.

This brings us to the next factor that determines flotation: density. A brick or a solid piece of metal is a heavy object that displaces only a little water. However, steel ships float because they have a large empty space inside, which decreases their average density. The weight of ships is spread over a large area, therefore displacing a lot of water.

Archimedes' principle

--the buoyant force experienced by a submerged object is equal to the weight of the liquid displaced by the object.

So if a bunch of water that is the same size as an object weighs more than the thing, it will float

a boat, in particular, floats because it is hollow

a hollowed out rock would float

simple - Surface Tension.

Water molecules sticking together - like when they form a rain drop. Surface tension keeps it from disbursing into a million fragments.

Your boat is pushing down on the surface of the water with a force equal to 50,000 tons.

The surface of the water is pushing up on the boat with a force equal to the weight of the water that the boat is displacing.

As the boat enters the water & pushes down, it displaces (pushes out of the way) more & more water.

When it reaches the point to where the water it has displaced weighs 50,000 tons, it stops sinking, & floats at that depth.

For ur 50,000 ton vessel, that would be about 11.6 million gallons, which take up about 1.5 million cubic feet.

If ur ship was 250 feet long & 100 feet wide, & sank down until 60 feet of it was under water, it would be displacing about 50,000 tons of water.

It would not matter to what height above the surface the ship reached, as long as it is weight is only 50,000 tons, it can not displace any more water, therefore can not sink.

Now if it say, hits an iceberg & springs a leak, & water starts coming in, it gets heavier and, u know the rest.

displacement