# Flotation



## Quad1973 (Mar 24, 2011)

How much weight does a cubic air space (compressed and non-compessed) float?


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## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

:-? Hunh? Lost me there for a second.  ;D

My attempt at interpreting that question, is you are asking about buoyancy.
If so, let's see if I can confuse the matter for you.
1 gallon of distilled water is 8 pounds. 
A gallon is 231 cubic inches.
A cubic foot is 12 x 12 x 12 = 1728 cubic inches
1728 / 231 = 7.48 gallons per cubic foot
so, 7.48 x 8 = 59.84 lbs of distilled water in one cubic foot.
Sea water, because of the dissolved minerals, is about 64 lbs per cubic foot.

So, 1 cubic foot of trapped air space in a hull produces about 60 to 64 lbs of buoyancy,
depending on whether your boat is floating in a lake or the ocean.


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

And believe it or not compressed air does have weight to it so if you were to "pump up" the pressure in the space it would actually have slightly less bouyancy. But so little that it woes not matter.


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## Quad1973 (Mar 24, 2011)

Thanks Brett, that is what I was looking for.


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