Noah's ark would have sailed through the weigh-in

Noah's ark could have floated, even with two of every land animal in the world packed inside, scientists have calculated.

Although researchers are unsure if all the creatures could have squeezed into the huge vessel, they are confident it would have handled the weight of 70000 animals without sinking.

A group of master's students from the department of physics and astronomy at Leicester University studied the exact dimensions of the ark, set out in Genesis 6:13-22.

According to the Bible, God instructed Noah to build a boat 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high, recommending that it be made from gopher wood. The students averaged out the Egyptian and Hebrew cubit measurement to come up with 48.2cm, making the ark about 145m long - about 100m shorter than the British navy's recently scrapped aircraft carrier Ark Royal.

Using those dimensions, the Archimedes principle of buoyancy and the approximate weight of various animals, they were surprised to discover the ark could have floated.

Student Benjamin Jordan said: "Using the dimensions of the ark and the density of the water, we were able to calculate its buoyancy force, which, according to Archimedes' principle, is equal to the weight of the volume of fluid the object displaces. We were then able to estimate the total mass the ark could support before the gravitational weight would overcome the buoyancy force, causing the ark to sink."

Previous research has suggested there were about 35000 species that would have needed to be saved from flood waters, enabling the students to make the calculations.

The students had to swap gopher wood for cypress wood, as biblical experts continue to speculate what gopher wood might be. Some think it might mean prepared planks.

Student Thomas Morris said: "You don't think of the Bible necessarily as a scientifically accurate source of information, so I guess we were quite surprised when we discovered it would work. We're not proving that it's true, but the concept would definitely work."

Dr Mervyn Roy, the course tutor, said: "The students are encouraged to be imaginative with their topics and find ways to apply basic physics to the weird, the wonderful and the everyday."