How Ships Float and What Keeps Them Upright

How can steel float, and what keeps a loaded ship upright? Explore buoyancy, stability, cargo weight and moving water inside the hull. Watch next: How Tiny Tugboats Control Giant Ships    • How Tiny Tugboats Control Giant Ships   Subscribe for ship engineering, navigation and maritime stories. 00:00 The steel paradox 01:57 The shape that holds up a ship 03:58 Weight you cannot see 05:48 What brings a ship upright 07:41 Why ships keep rolling 09:40 Moving water inside 11:33 When the sea gets in 13:25 One load, several consequences Technical evidence and further reading IMO — Ship Design and Stability Background for reserve buoyancy, loading limits, righting ability, free-surface effects and watertight integrity, including intact and damage stability. https://www.imo.org/en/ourwork/safety/page... UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency — MSIS 43: Intact stability Surveyor guidance on the 2008 Intact Stability Code and explanatory notes. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications... The diagrams explain general mechanisms. Illustrative loading and water-movement examples are not measured stability assessments of the ships in the footage. Corrections: please comment with the timestamp, the point in question and a supporting source. Footage and production credits Original script, explanatory animations and edit: Maritime Technology. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center — MN Colibri departure and sea footage, 2021. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13963/ NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center — Webb transport container loaded aboard MN Colibri, 2021. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13973/ NASA media guidelines: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/ima... Mani Albrecht / U.S. Customs and Border Protection / DVIDS — Long Beach Sea Port, 4 August 2021. Item labelled public domain. https://www.dvidshub.net/video/822441/b-ro... https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright Selected excerpts edited and resized, with source sound excluded. No endorsement by NASA or the U.S. government is implied.