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Forces and Motion

What Makes Your Boat Float?

What Makes Your Boat Float?
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.59

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    mathematical, tendency, probably, buoyancy, displace, equation, hull, fluid, material, buoyant, passenger, pressing, bathtub, certain, level, ship
     content words:    RMS Titanic

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What Makes Your Boat Float?
By Cindy Grigg 		  
1     You've probably heard of the great passenger ship the RMS Titanic. Built from 1909-1911, it was, at that time, the largest passenger ship in the world. Titanic weighed 46,328 tons and was nearly 883 feet (269 meters) long! How, you might well ask, could something that gigantic float?
 
2     All fluids (water, for example) exert pressure as the molecules of the fluid move around and bump into the surfaces of other matter. Pressure is the amount of force exerted by these molecules on a given area. This can be expressed as this mathematical equation:
 
3     pressure = force ÷ area      OR  p = F/A

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