Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi. we did this experiment without bilge keels and it worked very well. Once we did it with bilge keels and measured it to the right size and attached it to the boat the boat did not osscilate at all. What should we do?

thanks
Shana and Devora

Hi Shana and Devora,
Your results sound very normal! Bilge keels are meant to reduce the rolling of ships, so it is likely that the addition of bilge keels will decrease the oscillation that is observed. Bilge keels add a force in the opposite direction of the rolling, which will cause this decrease. You could also try experimenting with different shaped bilge keels to see which are more/less effective - some shapes may be better than others at limiting the oscillation. Hopefully this helped a bit, but please let us know if you have any more questions!
Good luck,
Chloe

Thank you soo much we figured it out on our own