Noah and the Ark
This article was posted on Monday, October 20, 2008
Marc 1 from Australia’s comments:
[quote]
It is hardly imaginable that a small family could build a wooden boat of those dimensions, let alone cut trees, shape the lumber, stick it to season, and build it with the basic knowledge of boat building from those days, no metal and probably very primitive tools.
Say God mustered all the animals for Noah, say 50,000 species plus a million or so insect, collected 300,000 plants and counting for him.
Remember not all plants, particularly in those days, produced handy seeds to slip in your pocket and guarantee a sequoia gigantes once put in the soil. So plenty of the need for plants in a bit of soil. [/quote]
Noah and his 3 sons built it in 100 years. Was the Ark large enough to carry all the necessary types?
“The ark measured 300× 50×30 cubits (Genesis 6:15), which is about 450×75×45feet or 137 ×23×13.7 meters, so its volume was 1.52 million cubic feet or 43,200meters( cubic meters). To put this in perspective, this is the equevalent volume of 522 standard railroad stock cars, each of which can hold 240 sheeps.
If the animals were kept in cages with an average size, (some would be much bigger, others smaller) of 20×20×12 inches (50×50×30centimeters), that is 4,800 cubic inches (75,000cm.), the 16,000 animals would only occupy 42,000 cubic feet (1,200m) or 14.4 stock cars. Even if a million insect species had to be on board as well, it would not be a problem because they require little space, If each pair were kept in cages of four inches(10cmor 1,000cm3) per side. all the insect species would occupy a total volume of only 1,000m3 or another 12 cars. This would live room for five trains of 99 cars each for food. Noah’s family, “range” for the animals, and air spaces. However, insects are not included in the meaning of behemath or remes so Noah probably did not have to take them on board as passengers anyway.”
FOOD AND EXCRETORY REQUIREMENTS
The ark would probably have carried compressed and dried foodstuff and a lot of concentrated food. Perhaps Noah fed the cattle mainly on grains, plus some hay for fibers. Woodmorappe calculated that the volume of the foodstuffs would have been only 15% of the arks total volume. Drinking water would have taken up less than 10% of the volume. this volume would be reduced further if rainwater were collected and piped into troughs.
Excretory requirements:
How did Noah’s family dispose of the waste of thousands of animals everyday? The amount of labor could be minimized in many ways. Probably they had sloped floors and /or slotted cages, where the animal manure could fall away the animals and be flushed away (plenty of water around!) or destroyed by vermi-composing (composing by worms) which would have provided also earth worms as a food source for animals. Very deep bedding can sometimes last for a year without needing a change. Absorbent material e.,g., sawdust, softwood shavings and especially peat moss would have reduced the moisture content and hence the odor.
Noah did not need to take plants either— many could have survived as seeds and others could have survived on floating mats of tangled vegetation, as seen today after severe storms. many insects and other in vertebrates were small to have survived these mats as well. According to Genesis 7:22, the flood wiped out all land animals that breathed through nostrils except those on the ark. Insects do not breathe through nostrils but through tiny pores (“tracheae”) in their exterior skeleton (“shell”).
Genesis 7: 6- 7
NIV
Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. And Noah and his sons ans his wife and his sons wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
Genesis 8:13 16
NIV
By the first day of the first month the water had dried up the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty seven day of the second month the earth was completely dry. Then
GOD said to Noah, “come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons wives..
So Noah and his family were in the ark for one year and 57 days. That was long the flood was on earth and then to completely dried up.
(AnswersIn Genesis)
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