This equipment allows a thorough investigation of the factors affecting the stability of a floating body. The position of the metacentre can be varied to produce stable and unstable equilibrium. The equipment consists of a rectangular floating pontoon, the centre of gravity of which can be varied by an adjustable weight which slides and can be clamped in any position on a vertical mast. A single plumb-bob is suspended from the mast which indicates the angle of heel on a calibrated scale. A weight with lateral adjustment allows the degree of heel to be varied and hence the stability of the pontoon determined.

RANGE OF EXPERIMENTS

• Determining the centre of gravity of the pontoon
• Determining the metacentric height and from this the position of the metacentre for the pontoon
• Varying the metacentric height with angle of heel

This equipment allows a thorough investigation of the factors affecting the stability of a floating body. The position of the metacentre can be varied to produce stable and unstable equilibrium. The equipment consists of a rectangular floating pontoon, the centre of gravity of which can be varied by an adjustable weight which slides and can be clamped in any position on a vertical mast. A single plumb-bob is suspended from the mast which indicates the angle of heel on a calibrated scale. A weight with lateral adjustment allows the degree of heel to be varied and hence the stability of the pontoon determined.

RANGE OF EXPERIMENTS

• Determining the centre of gravity of the pontoon
• Determining the metacentric height and from this the position of the metacentre for the pontoon
• Varying the metacentric height with angle of heel