The Navy Needed to Test Ships so it Made an Indoor Ocean

When it comes to how ships are prepared for the Navy, I think that most who are unfamiliar with the process probably at least assumed that there was some complex way that the Navy could figure out how these ships would fare on the open sea before putting them in the water. Personally, I always imagined it as a complicated mathematical formula combined with tiny models to get the job done. This seems to be the most logical way that makes the most sense.

While that’s partially correct, there’s another element to this equation that really makes the whole ordeal more mind-blowing. Instead of just trying things out on a small scale and then hoping for the best when they build billion-dollar vessels, the Navy actually has an incredibly expensive facility designed to test out the real deal.

The facility is pretty incredible as it serves as an indoor ocean. In fact, it’s the largest wave pool in the world and is in place to test scaled ships. The pool measures 360′ x 240′ wide along with being 20′ deep. In other words, this is a marvel of engineering in and of itself that serves as a tool to create other marvels of engineering.

Thanks to 216 individual wave makers, those in charge of the supersized pool are able to create a variety of different situations to imitate just about any real-world sea that the Navy may encounter. In other words, while this was probably a pretty pricey facility to put together, it seems like money was well spent when considering the fact that the ships being worked on have billions of dollars invested into them and are responsible for keeping human lives safe.

The video below from Veritasium takes us inside to get us a tour of one of the most impressive buildings ever created.