In the tale from the Old Testament, God spares Noah and his family from the great flood, giving him instructions to construct a vast ark to save a remnant of all the world’s animals. The story’s ending of course is a happy one. In this video, Ollie Youle from the University of Leicester, UK, considers whether such a heavily leaden vessel could really remain afloat. He takes into account a number of factors such as the total number of animal species in the world and the buoyancy forces required to counterbalance the menagerie of animals. Watch the video to find out the answer to his calculations.

This is one of a collection of videos based on student projects from the University of Leicester’s “Physics Special Topics” course, in which students use their physics knowledge to define and answer a quirky or unusual research question. The videos are part of our 100 Second Science series.