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Name: Mike
Status: Educator
Grade: 6-8
Location: IL
Country: United States
Date: November 2007
Question:
One of my students designed a boat house that is accessible from a river, but there is a 40 foot long trench that any boat will have to transverse prior to reaching the boathouse(imagine a swimming pool attached at the end of the trench). How do we figure out the width and depth of the proposed trench required for a boat to pass? Thanks for your time.


Replies:
Hi Mike,

I surely must be misunderstanding your question, because it seems to me that all that is needed is a trench that is somewhat wider than the boat, and deeper than the "draft" of the boat (the distance from the waterline to the lowest point of the boat... probably the tip of the rudder).

Regards,

Bob Wilson


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