What boat design holds the most weight?

`What boat design held the most weight?

Cameron Compare

Abstract

264 boats went missing in 2013. With all of the technology we have in today's world 264 boats carrying cargo and valuable lives gone. Not to mention that on average 2 cargo boats sink a week. When I heard these statistics I thought how unnecessary all of these loses are, so I decided to test what boat design would float the best. My goal was to find a design that will prosper against all of the others so that they could be put into effect on bigger vessels.

First thing first I had to 3D print 4 different boat designs. The designs included a shallow vee, a deep vee, a flat design, and a hydroplane. I went onto www.tinkercad.com and I designed my boats. My hypothesis is that the hydroplane will do the best because it has a lot more air pockets than the other designs and air helps displace the water, then flat design will do second, the shallow vee will do third, and the deep vee will do last because it will tip over. Next I put each boat into a bucket of water. Thirdly, I put a penny on each boat every 5 seconds to see how many pennies each boat could hold. Then I collected the data and I came to a conclusion on my project.

The data showed that the deep vee averaged 24.5 pennies, the shallow vee averaged 12 pennies, the hydroplane averaged 33.5 pennies, and the flat design averaged 30.5 pennies.

In conclusion the hydroplane came in first, the flat design came in second, the deep vee came in third, and the shallow vee came in last. I learned from this project that

the more air pockets there are in a boat the better it will float because it displaces the water. My hypothesis was half correct. The hydroplane did come in first like I

predicted, but the deep vee exceeded my expectations. I thought it would tip after a few pennies, but it actually averaged 24.5 pennies. If I did this experiment a second

time I could improve by making waves to make it more realistic. Some things that could have caused my project to mess up was that the water went threw the plastic after

the first test. This caused the water to seep through the bottom and not the top of the boat. Although this was not how the experiment was planned, I don’t think it ruined

the data since it happened to everyone of the boats. All in all the more air pockets you have in a boat the better it will float.

Problem

My problem is finding a boat design that will prevent boats from sinking at sea. I decided to do this project because an average of two cargo boats, holding goods and

valuable lives, sink a week and I want to do whatever I can to prevent these losses from recurring.

Question

What boat design holds the most weight?

Hypothesis

My hypothesis is that the hydroplane design will hold the most weight because of it’s shape. The air pockets on the hydroplane will allow it to float better than

all the others. Next, I believe the flat design will come in second because it has more air pockets than the deep vee and the shallow vee, but not as much as

the hydroplane. Then, I predict the shallow vee will come in third because deep vee will tip over because the V will be too steep.

Procedure

• 1. Make 4 different models of boats from the 3D Printer

  2. Put one of the boats in a bucket of water

  3. Put a penny on the boat every 5 second until the boat sinks

  4. Repeat step two and three for every different boat design

  5. Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 to get a second test

1. Come to a conclusion on which boat design holds the most weight.

Conclusion

In conclusion the hydroplane came in first, the flat design came in second, the deep vee came in third, and the shallow vee came in

last. I learned from this project that the more air pockets there are in a boat the better it will float because it displaces the water. My

hypothesis was half correct. The hydroplane did come in first like I predicted, but the deep vee exceeded my expectations. I thought it

would tip after a few pennies, but it actually averaged 24.5 pennies. If I did this experiment a second time I could improve by making

waves to make it more realistic. Some things that could have caused my project to mess up was that the water went threw the plastic

after the first test. This caused the water to seep through the bottom and not the top of the boat. Although this was not how the

experiment was planned, I don’t think it ruined the data since it happened to everyone of the boats. All in all the more air pockets you

have in a boat the better it will float.