The Bible story of Noah’s Ark could theoretically have happened, according to scientists.
Students at the University of Leicester worked out his boat could have floated - even when packed with two animals of every species.
A group of master’s students at the University of Leicester figured out the boat could have remained buoyant using dimensions stipulated in the book of Genesis.
However, the researchers said they are unsure all of the animals could have packed into the boat, but are confident it would have handled the weight of 70,000 creatures without sinking.
According to the bible, the boat measured 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits wide.
The students averaged the Egyptian and Hebrew cubit measurement to come up with 48.2cm, which would make Noah’s Ark 144 metres long.
Using the figures the buoyancy of the boat could be found, which turned out to be 50.5m kg, the equivalent to 2.15m sheep or 6,350 double decker buses.
They used sheep as an average for the weight of animals and concluded Noah would have had to sadly leave some creatures behind.
Student Oliver Youle said: “Luckily God provided us with exact dimensions for the ark, so after that it was just a question of buoyancy.”
The group did not go into details about the logistics of building sucgh a large boat, but suggest such a feat would be unlikely.
Their findings were presented in a paper for the Journal of Physics Special Topics, run by the University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.
