How Does a Submarine Work?
A submarine is a type of watercraft which is designed to float on the surface of the area and to navigate beneath the surface of the ocean. Submarines range in size from very small submersibles designed for deep sea exploration to huge nuclear submarines maintained as part of a military fleet. All submarines operate on the same basic principles, however, using the property of buoyancy to rise and fall in the water. The earliest submarine was built in the 1600s, although it was extremely crude and bears little resemblance to its modern counterparts. The double hulled design of a submarine includes large spaces for ballast tanks. When the tanks are filled with air, the submarine is much lighter than the water it displaces as it moves through the water, allowing it to float on the surface. When air is vented out so that water pours in, however, the submarine becomes heavier and starts to sink. The exact depth of the submarine can be controlled by admitting more water or forcing pressurize
Jules Verne in his science fiction, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, mentions a ship, Nautilus, which could dive beneath the waves and surface again when it wanted to. Even before submarines were thought about, Verne had created the blueprint of this technological marvel. Not only did he describe the machine, but he also explained, in great detail, how it worked. In fact, today’s submarines use exactly the same technology as Verne’s Nautilus did! How does a submarine float and dive under water at will? Try a little experiment. Take an empty mug and turn it upside down. Now try and push the mug inside a bucket full of water. You will have to apply a lot of pressure to do so. But once you release the pressure, the mug simply floats back to the top. Air is lighter than water The mug resurfaces because the air trapped inside it makes the mug lighter than water. This makes the mug float. Similarly, a submarine has huge tanks called ballast tanks. The air in them allows the submarine to float.
