The Falkirk Wheel in central Scotland is the world's only rotating boat lift, connecting Glasgow and Edinburgh by canal and replacing 11 locks that were abandoned in the 1930s. To link the Forth and Clyde Canal to the Union Canal—a 115-foot elevation difference— gondolas are raised or lowered containing not only boats but also the water they sit in, to the level of the connecting canal. The Wheel works on the Archimedes principle of displacement—the mass of the boat sailing into the gondola will displace an exactly proportional volume of water so that the final combination of boat plus water balances the original total mass.
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