Page 13 - I Ship: A Container Ship's Colossal Journey

Fast Facts about Intermodal Container Shipping
• An estimated 80 to 90 percent of the world’s global trade
moves via ship.
• As of 2022, the United States imported about 15 percent of
the total annual food supply, including 32 percent of fresh
vegetables, 55 percent of fresh fruit, and 94 percent of fresh
seafood from more than 200 countries.
• Each container has a unique identification number to help
the importing and exporting companies track their goods.
Once loaded, containers are sealed and locked to ensure
the safety of the contents.
• As of 2022, there were more than 5,500 modern container
ships in circulation. They can hold anywhere from 1,000 to
nearly 24,000 20-foot (6 m) containers.
• Container ship sizes are measured in TEUs, or twenty-foot
equivalent units.
• A semitruck you see on the highway usually holds one
40-foot (12 m) container, which is equal to 2 TEUs. That
means it would take 12,000 semitrucks to hold the same
volume as a ship holding 24,000 TEUs!
• The largest container ships are more than 1,312 feet
(400 m) long. That’s taller than the height of the Eiffel
Tower in Paris, France, and almost as tall as the Empire
State Building in New York City.
• Container ships are so large they can be seen from the
International Space Station!
See It for Yourself! Recommended Videos
“Chain Reaction: Why Global Supply Chains May Never
Be the Same”
A 2022 Wall Street Journal documentary by Christopher Mims
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KtTAb9Tl6E
“Life at Sea”
The YouTube channel of US merchant mariner Bryan Boyle
https://www.youtube.com/c/BryanBoyle
“Unique Look Inside One of the Biggest Container Ships in the World”
A 2020 excerpt from Richard Hammond’s Big! on Discovery Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNdughfkDbM
How Do Container Ships Float?
How can something so big and heavy float? It’s all about
buoyancy—an object’s ability to float in liquid. Buoyancy is
determined by two key factors.
1. Displacement: the amount of water an
object pushes aside
2. Density: how tightly packed together the
stuff that makes up an object is
An object floats when the water the object pushes aside,
or displaces, is greater than the weight of the object.
Shipbuilders design ships to displace a lot of water to
account for their huge size and weight. The secret is in the
shape of the ship and the amount of air inside it. Ships
have long, wide bottoms and deep sides (known as the
hull) to maximize their surface area—the amount of space
the outside of an object touches. More surface area
means more water will be displaced because more parts
of the ship touch the water, pushing it aside. Although
container ships are made of steel, they are mostly hollow
and filled with air, which helps keep their density and
weight low compared to the amount of water they
displace with their large surface area.
Want to see buoyancy in action? Download the
activity guide at www.lernerbooks.com/iship
for experiments!
For a complete bibliography and more,
visit http://www.kellyriceschmitt.com.