Hey there! I’m Kamri, and today I’m going to share something super cool I learned about submarines. Have you ever wondered how these huge machines can go underwater and then come back up? Well, I got some help from an expert named David Gruber, who’s a marine biologist, to figure it all out!
Submarines are built with two layers, kind of like having two skins. Between these layers, there’s a space called the “ballast tanks.” These tanks are super important for helping the submarine dive and rise in the water.
When a submarine wants to dive underwater, the crew fills the ballast tanks with water. This makes the submarine heavier, or denser, so it sinks. It’s like when you hold a heavy rock in a pool—it goes straight to the bottom!
To make the submarine rise back to the surface, the crew pumps air into the ballast tanks. Air is much lighter than water, so when the tanks are filled with air, the submarine becomes more buoyant, which means it floats back up. It’s like taking a big breath and floating on your back in a pool!
Once a submarine is underwater, it uses a special system called SONAR to navigate. SONAR stands for Sound, Navigation, and Ranging. The submarine sends out sound waves that bounce off objects in the ocean. By listening to the echoes of these sound waves, the crew can figure out where things are and how far away they are. The quicker the echo returns, the closer the object is!
So, you can think of a submarine as a mix between a whale and a bat. It has two hulls like a whale and uses sound waves like a bat to find its way around underwater. Isn’t that amazing?
Now that you know how submarines work, you can explore more cool episodes of “How Things Work” and learn even more awesome stuff. Don’t forget to subscribe to Nat Geo Kids for more fun and educational videos. See you next time!
Build Your Own Submarine Model: Gather some simple materials like a plastic bottle, clay, and straws. Use the bottle as the submarine’s body, and the clay to create ballast tanks by sticking it to the bottom of the bottle. Fill the bottle with water and see how it sinks. Then, use the straws to blow air into the bottle to make it rise. Observe how changing the amount of water and air affects the submarine’s buoyancy. Discuss with your friends or family how this experiment relates to real submarines.
Sound Wave Exploration: Try a fun activity to understand how SONAR works. Fill a large bowl with water and drop a small object like a pebble into it. Watch the ripples spread out and bounce off the sides of the bowl. Imagine these ripples are sound waves. Now, close your eyes and have a friend make a sound from different parts of the room. Try to guess where the sound is coming from, just like a submarine uses SONAR to find its way underwater.
Submarine Observation Walk: Next time you visit a pool or a lake, observe how different objects float or sink. Bring along a small notebook and draw or write about what you see. Try to identify which objects are more buoyant and which are denser. Think about how submarines use similar principles to dive and rise. Share your observations with your class or family and discuss why some objects float while others sink.
