RMS Titanic, which sank on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City, is the subject of seemingly a million TV programmes this month and a new article in Physics World. The article attempts to answer the obvious question:

When people ask the question “What sank the Titanic?”, at first glance the answer is obvious: she hit an iceberg. But that simplistic answer masks deeper and more substantive questions: why did the Titanic hit the berg in the first place and why did she sink so quickly?

The article discusses the physics of the ship’s construction and the surrounding aspects, including research reported earlier this month suggesting that “an ultrarare alignment of the sun, the full moon, and Earth” which “may have created unusually strong tides that sent a flotilla of icebergs southward—just in time for Titanic‘s maiden voyage”.

Source: The perfect storm.