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Q&A

What should seas be filled with to make boats impossible without balloons

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Boats and balloons both work because of buoyancy - they are pushed up by a force equal to the weight of displaced water/air respectively. I want my (otherwise earthlike) planet to have 'seas' of a liquid or gas that is

  • Denser than air, so it sits on the ground
  • Light enough that normal boats made of wood, steel, etc immediately sink (unless they were impractically large and light).
  • Ideally semi-inert (at 1atm 15 C) and nontoxic (other than being a simple asphyxiant)

I plan to have balloon-boats - which are basically lighter-than-air craft (with hydrogen or helium balloons), except they aren't lighter than air - just 'lighter' (less dense) than whatever the seas are made out of.

What substance should I use?

(Bonus points for an explanation as to how a such a sea could form.)

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This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/104470. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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