richardabeattie
Active member
I started this and am now losing the will to live.
Cindersasilor seems to be getting closest to an intelligible answer.
Let me try one last time.
Lock empty
Barge an almost perfect fit with the walls and jacked up of the floor just a tiny amount.
Barge weighs 100 tonnes. Air space all round the barge sides and bottom is only sufficient to contain one tonne of water.
Pour in the said water which brings the water level up to the barge's waterline and creates all this pressure (but no real tonnage of water)
Barge now floating? I doubt it.
Now, with the water inside the lock up to the barge waterline and the tide outside up to the same level, open the gate. Now it must be floating.
My theory is that for an object to float it must displace its own weight of water and that displaced water must be able to continue to exert force on the object. The lock gate cuts off that displaced water. So for the barge to float inside a closed lock the amount of water left in the lock when the barge enters must exceed the weight of the barge.
Come on, let's be havng you!
Cindersasilor seems to be getting closest to an intelligible answer.
Let me try one last time.
Lock empty
Barge an almost perfect fit with the walls and jacked up of the floor just a tiny amount.
Barge weighs 100 tonnes. Air space all round the barge sides and bottom is only sufficient to contain one tonne of water.
Pour in the said water which brings the water level up to the barge's waterline and creates all this pressure (but no real tonnage of water)
Barge now floating? I doubt it.
Now, with the water inside the lock up to the barge waterline and the tide outside up to the same level, open the gate. Now it must be floating.
My theory is that for an object to float it must displace its own weight of water and that displaced water must be able to continue to exert force on the object. The lock gate cuts off that displaced water. So for the barge to float inside a closed lock the amount of water left in the lock when the barge enters must exceed the weight of the barge.
Come on, let's be havng you!