Let's build cruise ships taller and taller until they start flipping over

 We're almost there. The Crown Princess almost flipped on a calm sea.
A little bit higher and these top-heavy things will rollover like a Suzuki SUV.

Don

  Don K wrote:

This is speculation, but the most likely reason for how it rolled was
that it was cruising at full speed when there was a rudder malfunction
that caused the rudder to turn fully to one side, which caused the ship
to turn at a high rate, thus inducing the roll. It's unlikely that it
was just sitting still and rolled over because it was top heavy.

Unlike a car, ships can lower their center of gravity by adding more
weight below road/sea level. It's all about center of gravity. A kayak
flips over rather easily, and it's barely 6 inches out of the water.

 
SUV.

The Suziki doesn't rollover when sitting still either.
It only happens during the turns.
One might argue that you shouldn't turn that sharply, but considering the
consequences, a better solution would be to design ships that were inherently
more stable.

Perhaps one that wasn't 9 stories or so tall might be better.


With the kayaker attached, the height of kayak is 3 feet above the water.
Once you start tilting, the center of gravity of what's above the
 waterline determines whether you're gonna get wet.

Don

 
Don K wrote:

SUV.

The kayaks secondary stability is what will determine whether you are
going to get wet.

 
...Which is a function of the shifting center of gravity of what's above
the waterline and the center of buoyancy of what's below it.

http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/Design/StabilityArticle.html

Don