10th Grade Girls Prove Jack Could Have Floated on Door With Rose … Maybe

A group of Australian girls won a math award for their Titanic theory.

By Liberty McArtor Published on November 9, 2017

Passion. Self-sacrifice. Tragic death. 

The scene toward the end of Titanic is heartbreaking β€” and maybe even more romantic because of the heartbreak. As the iconic ship sinks into the depths of the Atlantic, fictional Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) lets Rose (Kate Winslet) float atop the freezing water on a door from the ship, indicating the door can’t hold both of them. 

But could Jack have actually fit on the door? Sobbing fans of the 1997 flick have asked this question for two decades. And a group of 10th grade Australian girls recently proved the answer is yes.

How? If Jack had placed their life jackets under the door.

Abigail Wicks, Christy Zhang and Julia Damato won an award at the National Maths Talent Quest for the mathematical theory behind their claim, The Sun reported

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“We looked at how buoyant the door would have been, and how that would have changed if there were people on top of that,” Wicks said. “There was a lot of exploring and testing, and we had to fiddle with different buoyancies and look at what materials were realistic for that time.”

Damato said they also calculated how the saltwater would have affected the buoyancy. 

While the idea works in theory, Titanic director James Cameron isn’t so sure, The Sun notes. In 2012, Mythbusters also explored the life-jacket-under-the-door theory. But in an interview with Daily Beast in January, Cameron maintained it wasn’t practical.

He notes that the water in the scene is 28 degrees. It would have been too difficult for Jack to swim under the door and secure the life jackets, he said. Let alone survive hypothermia afterward.

Perhaps the debate isn’t really settled, after all … 

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