Hoboken Students Set Sail In Cardboard Regatta

Students at Hoboken Junior Senior High School held a “cardboard boat regatta” on May 29, as part of a class project to demonstrate and explore Archimede’s Buoyancy Principle.

Boats were constructed from SmartBoard boxes and duct tape. Before the regatta, students predicted the waterline of their boats based on the boat’s dimensions and the total weight of the boat plus passengers.

The goal was to go two lengths of the pool.

According to a release, the project demonstrates Archimede’s Buoyancy Principle: the upwards force is equal to the weight of the volume of water that is displaced by the boat.

Photos courtesy of the Hoboken Board of Education