291: Chapter 291 Reasons for Marine Displacement

"Look, these are the design blueprints for the steam ironship."

Zhao Fusu said to Zhongli Wei and Ouyang Feng, "First, understand how the steam ironship is designed, down to every single component."

"You can use wood to build the hull of the steam ironship."

"Once you have a sufficiently thorough understanding of the steam ironship's general structure, I will have the Steam Academy and Materials Academy of the Great Qin Academy of Sciences collaborate with you to produce the steam ironship's power system and the steel castings needed for the hull, and then assemble them."

"As you command!"

After Zhongli Wei and Ouyang Feng responded, they couldn't wait to begin studying the design blueprints for the steam ironship.

Among the blueprints provided by Zhao Fusu, besides the designs for a Small Steamship, there were also designs for a large Ocean-going Steam Passenger Liner.

Zhongli Wei and Ouyang Feng first looked at the design blueprints for the Small Steamship with curiosity.

This ship was different from any vessel they had seen before.

It had a large chimney, but no oars or sails.

Steel was used as the shipbuilding material for the hull, and wheels driven by a Steam Engine were installed on both sides of the ship as a propulsion system.

The ship could travel 240 kilometers in 32 hours, whereas a regular sailing ship would take four days and nights for the same journey!

The efficiency was definitely greatly improved!

"His Majesty the Head of State."

Ouyang Feng inquired, "The power is not manual labor nor sails; is it the Steam Engine used by the steam train?"

"Correct."

Zhao Fusu said, "Unlike the Steam Engine of the steam train, the Steam Engine used for the steam ironship is a Marine Steam Engine specifically designed for use on a steam ironship."

"In terms of size, it might be even larger."

Although they were building a Small Steamship, its dimensions were approximately 45 meters long and over 9 meters wide, with a displacement of 100 tons!

The size of this hull was already larger than the biggest ship in Great Qin today!

Displacement is an important indicator used to represent the scale of a vessel; it refers to the weight of the volume of water displaced by the vessel in the water.

According to Archimedes' Principle, the buoyant force an object experiences in water is equal to the weight of the water it displaces, which is the weight of the water with the same volume as the part of the hull submerged in the water; this is the ship's displacement.

Generally speaking, a ship's displacement is equal to the ship's weight.

A ship's displacement calculates the volume of the ship below the Waterline.

If the ship's shape is regular, such as a rectangular prism, and the length and width of the ship submerged in the water are known, multiplied by the depth of submersion, then the volume of the displaced water can be calculated.

For irregularly shaped ships, the submerged part can be divided into multiple approximately regular shapes, and the volumes calculated separately and summed to find the volume of displaced water. Alternatively, by measuring the displacement profile of the ship at different water levels, mathematical methods such as integration can be used to calculate the volume of displaced water.

Why do ships use displacement instead of directly using the ship's weight or mass?

Because they are too large to be weighed.

Cao Cao asked: How many steps are there to weigh an elephant?

Cao Chong replied: Three steps.

1. Put the elephant on a boat.

2. Carve a line on the hull where it meets the water.

3. Weigh stones that cause the same draft.

Now, replace the elephant with cargo; therefore, a vessel's carrying capacity is also estimated through the increase or decrease in draft depth, which is why it's called displacement.

"The movement of the steam ironship relies on Propellers. Since the friction of the Propeller against the water is far less than the friction between a train's wheels and the ground, to navigate through water, a larger Marine Steam Engine must be used to obtain greater power and torque!"

Zhongli Wei and Ouyang Feng didn't know much about this area, so they could only understand it partially.

Regardless, they weren't responsible for the power system.

Their main responsibility was to figure out the construction of the hull.