How do you build a ship out of cardboard that can float in water?

Answer 1

You take cardboard and you build the body of your ship using lots of Duct Tape. The best I have seen are usually boxes with a slight incline at one end. Careful however, they only last the one use. (I have done this project in school, for more info message me) Actually - the below is wrong - i dont think you can make a "SHIP" out of cardboard its another form of paper so when it gets wet it will sink and you prolly not goin to be able to make a ship maybe if your lucky a boat and that is using other stuff so the cardboard dosent get wet and fall apart next time think things over befor you post them =]

Answer 2

Of course it depends on what you want to float. It also depends on the means you have to alter something that you want to float. Any object will float if it weighs less than the water it displaces. If you've ever seen videos of a car sinking in water, it illustrates the principle. It starts out floating for a few seconds or minutes, then it starts to sink, and will end up sinking completely. That's because when it hits the water, it's semi hollow (even with the heavy engine) and filled with air, which is much lighter than water. For it's size and shape, it's lighter than the water. But because an auto is not water tight, water starts seeping into it pushing all of the air out, replacing all of the air with water. The weight of the water makes it heavier and heavier until all of the air in the car has been replaced by water; the water plus the weight of the car itself make the whole thing sink.

Now, a Bowling ball may weigh only 20 or 25 pounds compared to a ton of auto but it's almost impossible to make an average bowling ball float on it's own. It's a solid ball of weight. You would have to hollow out enough air space that would make it lighter than the space of the water it is replacing. Or use another device, like attaching a large helium balloon or put in into a device that would displace enough water to float. A bucket wouldn't do it, perhaps a large trash can with a lid which would seal out the water. But in these two examples, the bowling ball is not actually floating, the balloon and the trash can are doing the floating.

Just about anything can be made to float, a car is easy if you seal up all the places that water would come in (see the link below), or a huge steel battle ship whose shape is designed to displace enough water to allow it to float. The MythbustersTV show did an episode that they raised a sunken fishing boat by filling it with ping pong balls. Whatever it is you would like to float, you will only have to be clever to devise a way to do it.

Answer 3

well y would i answer dis qustion if i dont no