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?