Poseidon Adventure more of a technical question...

[Grafitti 0]

So, after watching the movie, i got into a debate with someone over the sinking of the ship. My question is: would a ship that size sink that fast? I've known of smaller craft, say 40 or 50 footers, who turned upsidedown in a gale, and stayed that way for a week or two. Why would a huge ocean liner, which has the bottom half of her sealed watertight, sink in an hour? Does that make sense from a laws of physics standpoint or not?

[ginginca 0]

Interesting question ... and I was just watching a documentary this morning on a bunch of sinkings in the great lakes.I'm not a physics expert but I certainly would like to know too if anyone has any thoughts on that.Gin

[jimmy89 0]

common sense says that something that is full of air (say a hull of a ship) should float on the surface of the water for as long as it is full of air. now the Poseidon was airtight to a certain respect but in the movie the glass in the main hall burst and water filled the ship, meaning that the ship would start to loose buoyancy.also in the movie, as the people try to get to the engine room they fill the hull of the ship with water. This would also make the ship sink faster! but as to your question of would it sink within an hour of capsizing, i would have to say not. that seems to fast for a ship of that size to go under. how long did it take the titanic to sink?-jimmy

[Grafitti 0]

Yes, so since the hull was full of air, it should have remained afloat. Also even if the main hall windows broke, and the water had rushed in, the air needed somewhere to escape to. it could have compressed somewhat, but then it would have reached neutral buoyancy, and the water would have stopped rising until the air found some way of escaping through the hull of the ship. Now we see that in the last few minutes, where the turbines are spinning the wrong way because the air is escaping through them, etc. but through all the rest of the movie, those hatch doors were closed, and so the air would have been trapped. In essence, i think the water might have filled the main hull, but until a really major hole was knocked in the hull, allowing the massive amount of air trapped to escape in one go, the ship would have stayed afloat for days, definitely until rescue crews arrived, in which case i think they would have sent divers from underneath to avoid the trapped air escaping through a hole they'd made. The Titanic sank so fast because the hull was ripped open and water filled it from below, and the top of the ship was full of those glass doors and windows and all manner of vents, so the air would have had a much easier time getting out. Even so, it took the ship approximately 2 hours, 40 minutes to sink.