Question

warm water is generally less dense than cold water. the mass of a ship increases as it is loaded with cargo. if a ship will be saling through warm and cold water, what should people think about as they load the ship with cargo?

Answer 1

They should design the ship for worst case scenario.


Worst case scenario against a direct sinking occurs at the maximum expected water temperature. This is when the volume of water to be displaced is greatest. The mass of water to be displaced is actually the same in both cases...but it is the volume to consider to avoid flooding.

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There is another worst case scenario to consider as well. It isn't as intuitive, and requires more mathematics to ensure that it is met...but the scenario is rotational instability, and it is VERY important in vessel design.


You need to keep the center of mass of the boat BELOW the center of volume of the region of water displaced. That way, after any slight rotational disturbance, gravity restores it back to the upright condition.


Worst case scenario for this failure mode occurs when water is DENSEST, which will occur at the temperature of 4 Celsius.

Recource: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110331064441AAXL20I

Answer 2

hope this helps ^-^