Physicists Show That Noahs Ark Would Have Floated

[StupidWiz]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10740451/Noahs-Ark-would-have-floated...even-with-70000-animals.html

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11231628

http://nypost.com/2014/04/03/physicists-show-that-noahs-ark-would-have-floated/

After seeing a lot of subhanallah, alhamdulillah and allahuakbars from the Muslims on FB after they shared this article, I'm curious of what your thoughts about this.   

Mods, please merge/delete this if it's already been posted... 

[stromboli]

Floated with 70000 animals for how long? does that include food for all the animals? For how many days? Doesn't matter. Still doesn't answer all the other impossibilities.

[StupidWiz]

I know, but the problem is, the religious people see this as a validation that science (physics?) does somehow support the story from their holy book. It's kind of sad and depressing. 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

A raft will float. It's the hogging they had to worry about. Put the bow on one wave, and the stern on another, and about 300 feet of keel in the air and you will quickly have two half arks.

[stromboli]

Here we go on the ark again. Given the dimensions alone, yes. But this craft was built in the middle neolithic with bronze tools or less, had to be almost all wood construction minus any steel supporting members-steel wasn't around yet- and bronze was nowhere in such abundance or structural strength that it could work to support such a craft. And to last for any length of time on heavy seas is another issue. You'll never convince me that a boat without significant inner bulwarks could hold up for any time. And bulwarks limit space. I think its bullshit.

[aitm]

Don't cha wish xians would read the fucking babble, it is NOT TWO FUCKING PAIR....jesus h fucking christ, it is 7 FUCKING PAIR OF CLEAN and TWO PAIR OF UNCLEAN....fuck man. read the fucking shit (gen 7:2)

[StupidWiz]

What I think impossible is how Noah and his followers gathered all the species, all animals and fit them into one giant ship? Are there compartments to prevent the lions eating one of the deers? How about all the species in snakes? insects? felines? Did they get them all? It's just bullshit, but the religious don't see that, they see this that at least it's plausible from the physics department. A lot of people here in my country usually don't question this kind of article a bit further, they just see "See, science does support Quran, Subhanallah, I love Islam even more now."

Now, the Christians here are having debates with Muslims about Muhammad being a false prophet, while The Muslims claim that Jesus is just another prophet, not God. It's a morning entertainment over here for me guys. 

[josephpalazzo]

Get over, christians. They calculate the buoyancy of a craft of the same dimensions as written in the bible, with a weight corresponding to 70,000 species. IOW, it proves nothing about the Noah story.

[SGOS]

Get over, christians. They calculate the buoyancy of a craft of the same dimensions as written in the bible, with a weight corresponding to 70,000 species. IOW, it proves nothing about the Noah story.

Yes, let's not get so focused on specific technical aspects of this thing that we lose sight of the bullshit.

[Mr.Obvious]

I've never seen the show myself, but this sounds like something for 'mythbusters'.
I heard Ken Ham and his posse were having a replica built in America. How about they have it be built by a 'righteous' family of eight if I remember correctly (of course it has to be a family without practice in the modern ways of boatmaking) and then they use it to stay seaworthy for a year with the equivelant of the 70.000 animals in it. We'll see how it goes. If they succeed, I'd be willing to repay their troubles.

[aileron]

A group of master’s students...

Since when is a group of master's students "physicists"?

[Jason78]

Have any of these physicists actually ever built a boat?   Or for that matter, ever laid hands on any gopher wood?

[josephpalazzo]

Since when is a group of master's students "physicists"?

Phooey, even high school kids could do that calculation.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5149859_calculate-buoyant-force.html

[leo]

Yes, let's not get so focused on specific technical aspects of this thing that we lose sight of the bullshit.

Yep. It's important to put the silly Noah story in perspective.

[Shol'va]

I see several problems and would like to see the source material.
For example:

"Student Benjamin Jordan, 21, from Bury St Edmonds, said: “Using the dimensions of the Ark and the density of the water"

How did they calculate the density of the water? Due to the flood, it is unclear what the water density would have been, since it would have been neither freshwater, nor marine. It is reasonable to assume it may have been brackish, but the specific gravity is still impossible to determine.

In addition, I also would like to know what animals they considered were on the boat in order to deduce average weight.
On top of this, the type of wood they used is also speculated and not factual.

And then the "fatal blow" comes:

You don’t think of the Bible necessarily as a scientifically accurate source of information, so I guess we were quite surprised when we discovered it would work. We’re not proving that it’s true, but the concept would definitely work

So nothing was scientifically proven beyond a mere hypothesis.

Also this:

Course tutor, Dr Mervyn Roy, a lecturer in the University of Leicester’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, said: “The students are encouraged to be imaginative with their topics, and find ways to apply basic physics to the weird, the wonderful and the everyday.”

Student, Katie Raymer, 22, from Whitstable added: “Every other module that we do is a lot more serious and so the Physics Special Topics module was nice to do something different â€" allowing us to apply basic physics to something a bit more fun.”

So this was "just for fun" and is not a serious, exact, reliable, testable, peer reviewed scientific exercise that proves anything. Could it have floated? Maybe. What does that prove? Nothing.