Swimmmmm!
I know it’s cold. Oh, there’s the door! Get to the door, get to the door!
On TV: Jack ...
Jack, ya big idiot. Get on there! Gah!
Oh Rose and Jack!
Jack could've fit on there too. They both could’ve floated on that door.
And they could’ve lived to tell the tale. They could’ve dried off.
Do you really think they both could’ve floated on that thing?
I think there’s a way to figure that out.
What we should do is -
♫ Dramatic music ♫
Hey … Han?
What’s up, Ann?
I think we could probably figure this out with science.
I’m so glad you said that, Ann.
Let’s get the heck outta here.
I don’t wanna get in that water. Ooooh let’s get it.
♫ Han & Ann theme music ♫
Ooooh, Ann.
So what do we need to do to figure this out in a more like scientific and accurate way.
There’s this thing in physics called the Archimedes’ principle
And it explains how buoyancy works.
And there’s an equation that goes along with it that we can use to figure out if Jack and Rose could’ve survived.
So what we’re gonna need are the dimensions of the door, what the door was made of, and the temperature of the water on that fateful night.
Whoa, Ann. That was a really detailed answer from a pretty broad question.
Thank you, Ann.
You didn’t even Google anything there.
Nope!
Ok, Ann. I’m gonna use history … to get you those answers.
The first thing I had to do to find out more about the Titanic disaster was to read ‘A Night To Remember.'
The classic account of the final hours of the Titanic, by Walter Lord.
This book was published in 1955 and Lord interviewed 63 people who survived the ship’s sinking.
However, this book didn’t answer all my questions.
I spoke with Don Lynch, official historian for the Titanic Historical Society, and for James Cameron’s 1997 film.
Hello!
Hey!
So, first of all - could Jack and Rose have lived, in your opinion?
I’m gonna say no.
Oh my God. This is terrible.
So when you watch the movie and you see that Jack tried to climb up on the piece of paneling
He isn’t able to make it.
His limbs are stiffening up. He’s freezing to death.
So he doesn’t have the dexterity, within more than a minute or so, to try to climb onto anything.
In pop culture, that thing they’re floating on is understood to be a door on the Titanic. Isn’t it a door?
No, no. It’s not a door at all. It’s a piece of paneling and it’s based on a real piece of paneling that was rescued from the ocean by one of the ships that went out to pick up bodies.
So it’s not a door. It’s a door adjacent piece of paneling.
This is our Watergate.
The real paneling is smaller than the one in the movie.
If you look at the photos of Rose on the paneling, you’ll see that the filmmakers actually made it longer.
So that she could fit on it better.
Could the power of love keep someone warm in 28 degree water?
The power of alcohol kept several people warm enough.
And yet, alcohol will make you freeze faster.
Mind over alcohol.
In terms of survival aids we have love down here, and we have whiskey up here.
Thank you for speaking to us, Don Lynch of the Titanic Historical Society.
Thank you.
Goodbye!
Bye.
I learned a lot from Don Lynch, like, how everyone thinks it’s a door in the movie but it’s actually just some paneling.
But anyway, I still needed to know the dimensions of that paneling so that Ann could use math to figure out whether or not it would float with a couple of young lovers on top.
They don’t know that we’re coming for them.
Like Woodward and Bernstein.
I do have an inquiry!
Press zero!
I have learned from an historian for the Titanic that you guys actually have the pieces of paneling that this was based on. Is that true?
Ok. Roger ... what’s his surname?
Um, ok. Thank you so much.
We have an email for the man that could tell us the dimensions and it is confirmed oak paneling.
Yes!
Oak. It’s not this!
So I emailed Roger Marsters, the curator of marine history at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Nova Scotia.
He gave me the dimensions and material of the paneling that the so-called door was based on.
It was time for Ann to learn about wood.
In order to figure out if Jack and Rose could’ve survived, we need to know the density of the panel, and thanks to Han, we know that the panel was made of red oak.
So I called Dr. Brian Bond, who’s a professor of Sustainable Biomaterials at Virginia Tech.
He told me he’d guess the panel was made of Northern Red Oak. and he estimated that the density would’ve been around 694 kg/m3.
Then, I needed to figure out the density of the seawater.
Hi, is this Dr. Baringer?
So I spoke to Dr. Molly Baringer, who’s an oceanographer from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
No one recorded the density of seawater on that day in 1912, but given the temperature and the location, she estimated the density would be around 1029.4 kg/m3.
Now I need to do some math.
So basically, I’m gonna calculate the buoyant force, which is the force acting upwards on the panel.
If I subtract from that the force of the weight of the panel, which is acting downwards, I’ll get the additional weight that it would take to submerge the panel.
This changes everything.
Han! Han, I’ve got huge news!
Oh my God! Ok, well I can see here that you’ve used math to figure out that …
Everyone is dead?
Yes, it's really quite terrible.
The panel would’ve been submerged at only 69.5 pounds.
Not even little Kate is gonna float on that, is she?
Neither Jack nor Rose would’ve survived.
♫ Sad Titanic music ♫
What if the panel were as long as the one they used in the movie, which is longer?
Well, in fact, I did that calculation too.
Course you did, Ann!
So, if I made the panel about as long as Kate Winslet, which is about five foot seven ...
One Winslet long.
If I make it one Winslet long, the panel would submerge at about 91.7 pounds.
Still, probably not big enough for even Kate.
But here’s why I still have hope.
Oh, tell me please.
Here’s why my heart will go on after this terrible exercise we have done in mathematics.
I heard from Don Lynch the historian, that -
Don Lynch: There was a Chinese gentleman, who was rescued from a door.
He was actually a sailor, and so he lashed himself to it and that was how he saved himself.
And I think that maybe that could be what Jim realized, that if someone were floating on something the size of the door, they could be saved.
And so he extended this paneling, to make it door-sized.
Rose is real!
Rose is real. Rose is a sailor from China who strapped himself to a door and just knew what he was doing in the shipwreck.
A very wise man. Shout-out to that guy.
I think this one’s pretty much Han and ...
Ann-swered!
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Everyone's dead.
♫ Han & Ann theme music ♫
It’s so cold, oh and heavy!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh
Oh, Ann.
Uhhhhhhhhh
Oh let’s just leave. Let’s just leave it. Some animal will want it. I don’t know. It’s fine.
Ah, a branch! Ahhhhhh!
*laughter*