1. When the submersible Alvin found the Titanic, it confirmed that the ship had

Question

1. When the submersible Alvin found the Titanic, it confirmed that the ship had split in half before it sank (as eyewitnesses to the sinking had claimed.) The bow of the ship was filled with water and sank to the ocean floor intact. The stern, however, was filled with air... and was smashed by the compression of the intense water pressure. To understand how something as huge as a cruise ship could be smashed like a tin can, find the force due to the water pressure acting on the rear deck of the Titanic when it reached a depth of 3000 meters (its final resting place is deeper than this)

Assume the density of seawater is 1030 kg/m , and that the deck can be approximated as a rectangle 54.0 m long and 28.0 m wide. (To put your answer in perspective, the weight of the entire ship was 50,000 tons.)

Explanation / Answer

Pressure at a depth of h=3000 m

P=Patm+pgh 1.01325*105+1030*9.81*3000

P=3.04*107 pa

Force due to water pressure on rear deck is

F=PA=(3.04*107)(54*28)

F=4.6*1010 N

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