Bathtub Toy or Ocean Liner?
Noah’s Ark: “The real Ark was about half as long as the Titanic, its three decks would cover an area the size of two football fields. As much cargo space as four – one hundred car freight trains.”
According to Genesis 6:15-16 the Ark was 300 cubits long x 50 cubits wide x 30 cubits high. A cubit is the length from a man’s elbow to his finger tips which is about 18”. The Ark would have a length of 450 ft (compared to the Titanic’s 882 ft) and with its three decks (verse 16) the square footage area would be over 100,000 SF. A football field has 48,000 SF of surface area, half as much as the Ark. The Ark’s volume was over 1.5 million cubic feet. A standard freight train has about 5,200 cubic feet of space so 290 of these box cars could fit in the Ark.
“That’s enough room for the 8,000 kinds of birds and land animals that have since descended into the wonderful variation of species that we have today”
John Woodmorappe’s work, Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility Study presents a scientifically detailed treatment of the Ark and its passengers. According to Woodmorrape’s study, the Ark could have easily accommodated 16,000 animals (8,000 pairs) of various sizes. Large animals would have been come aboard as juveniles to conserve space. The 8,000 pairs of animals would be enough to carry the genetic diversity necessary for the number of species known today.