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Comment by pavel_lishin | Hacker News Reader

> if you could build an approximation that works most of the time with much less precision, then you might be able to make sale-able objects that do such...

They're called turtles.

http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/biomechanics/10309/the-livi...

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I am surprised we dont make ships with this general shape.

Ships don't have a mathematical requirement that their internal structure be one homogenous material, thus it's a trivial matter to put a weight at the lowest point of the ship so that it acts like a weeble: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weeble

Why? So they'll right themselves if they're capsized? If a ship (not a boat) capsizes you've got pretty serious problems already.

Besides, self-righting is a very different sort of problem when you're floating.

It is fairly standard for lifeboats to be self-righting. Google "self-righting boat" for examples. The typical shape is not a gömböc, though. A gömböc would self-right, even when completely under water.

The self righting designs I'm familiar with for (large) dinghies have a lot of lead in the bottom of the boat combined with a lot of built in buoyancy - they'd probably self right deep underwater.

I'm sure a gomboc would self-right when completely underwater, but what about a floating gomboc half-submerged? Different problem.

Also, ships are not solid (as in 'filled'), let alone uniform in density. On top of that, hydrodynamics imposes more important constraints on shape. You can make a ship pretty stable by loading its keel heavily.

I am suprised we dont make ships with this general shape.

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