This exhibit explores the sub-marine’s buoyancy system. It has a watertight pool with a scaled model submarine. In the submarine there are two ballast tanks connected to air pumps that can be controlled.
How does a submarine work? A submarine is capable of ascending and descending in the water thanks to the ship’s buoyancy system. A submarine’s buoy-ancy depends on the ships ballast tanks. If a submarine’s tanks are mainly full of air it has a positive buoyancy, meaning that it is less dense than the water around it-and will therefore float. For a submarine to submerge it must have negative buoyancy, which means that its ballast tanks are filled with a certain amount of water, making the submarine more dense than the water around it.
- Press the button to adjust the level of air in the submarine’s two ballast tanks.
- See how the submarine rises or dives into the water.