Proven: Noah’s Ark Would Have Handled 70k Animals At Sea
With the new film Noah dominating at the box office, it’s time for a bit of “fact vs. fiction” in the classic Bible story. According to a new study done by UK scientists, Noah’s Ark would have been able to withstand the weight of two of every animal if built to specification.
The UK Telegraph reports students from the University of Leicester calculated exactly how much weight Noah’s Ark would have been able to hold. Lo and behold, it could support the weight two of each animalNoah would have carried on board. In all, some 70,000 animals could have traveled on the vessel without sinking.
According to the Telegraph, grad students from Leicester’s Department of Physics and Astronomy crunched the numbers supplied by the Bible to get average dimensions based on Hebrew and Egyptian measurements.From there, they used principles of buoyancy Archimedes established to see whether the estimated weight of the 70,000 animals would have held on such as ship. The conclusion was Noah’s Ark was sea-worthy with all those animals on board.
There were numerous variables involved in the calculation, but University of Leicester professors were comfortable with the formula the students used. Since there is no “gopher wood” referenced in the Bible in use these days, a replacement was supplied.
Questions about the ark’s feasibility remain, of course. For example, even if the massive ship could have carried the animals, would they have been able to fit inside the boat? That questioned has to be left open for another day of experiments.
Whether they would have been able to travel any distance with so many members of the food chain in close proximity is another topic worth exploring.
