Floating City

Introduction

As the future arrives, people expect advanced technologies to live with. We (Harshit Khemani and Krish Jain of class 9-A, Birla Vidya Niketan) have come up with a concept of floating cities. How will we make these cities possible? How will they float in water? How will they be stable against waves? All your questions will be answered in this quick read.

Thinking Process

• We will use a Hexagonal base as the base of the city. It is considered the most architectural shape because it occupies the most space compared to other polygons. Area and pressure are inversely proportional therefore, as the space occupied on the base increases, the pressure applied by the city on the water decreases.

• We will make a huge compartment at the bottom of the city with air-filled inside it. This compartment will be fully immersed in water. This will make the average density of the city less than that of the water.
• We will also heat the water of the water body to 4⁰C because at this temperature the volume of water is minimum and volume and density being inversely proportional, the density of water is maximum at this temperature.
• We will also add thick rubber tubes filled with air at the sides of the city to keep it afloat whenever tides hit the city.
• Being in the middle of the water body we can provide our city with solar panels to use the solar energy from the sun which will reduce much of the global warming caused due to other forms of energy. Fans, cars etc could be powered using these solar panels.
• Aerogel is a solid which has a very low density than water (aerogel = 1.9 kg/m³; water = 1000 kg/m³ at 4⁰C). It would not be economical to make the whole city out of aerogel because it is expensive than gold. Therefore, we will make only the huge hexagonal base of the city out of aerogel.

As you can see a small piece of aerogel can take so much weight.

• For the waste management, we will make capsules out of wood in the shape of a boat which would make a large amount of water to displace, which would increase the upward force (buoyancy) acting on the capsule which would make it float. These capsules will be present at the coast and not connected to the city. All the waste of these cities would be kept in these capsules. There will be separate capsules for wet, dry waste and other for plastic waste.
• Ideonella sakaiensis is a bacterium capable of breaking down and consuming the plastic polyethene terephthalate (PET) as a sole carbon and energy source. So, we will put these bacterium in the plastic waste capsules to help plastic decompose.
• We will drill one hole in the capsules. We will then fix two washers here to install a tap. We will then drill holes all over the capsules. We will then put a few broken tiles at the bottom of the capsule; then pile some pieces of coconut shell over it. We will put a layer of wet waste above this. Then add a layer of dry leaves, almost double the quantity of the wet waste layer. Keep adding wet waste and dry waste in layers regularly. Keep newly-added layers intact for a few days, and then stir it once in a while. The liquid leaching from the waste can be drawn out through the tap occasionally. Continue filling the capsule until it becomes full. Then cover the top of the capsule with a hardboard. The mixture would turn into compost in almost three months.

By making this project possible, we are bringing a new version of the legendary city of Atlantis possible. If this is built, it would be one of the greatest science inventions there is!

Thank you For Reading!

Work by- Harshit Khemani and Krish Jain (Birla Vidya Niketan)