Archimedes’ Law of Buoyancy describing the magnitude of the buoyancy force on a floating object is justly regarded as the beginning of the field of hydrostatics. But a postulate he attached to it about the line of action of the buoyancy force is equally important and is essential in determining equilibrium orientations of a floating body and the stability of those orientations. In proving the stability of certain orientations of a floating truncated sphere or paraboloid, he introduced a distance now recognized as the precursor of the righting arm of a floating body. This paper delves into this seminal concept and also brings Archimedes’ results up-to-date by finding all of the equilibrium orientations – both stable and unstable – for the two basic floating bodies he studied.


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    Title :

    The righting arm in Archimedes’ On Floating Bodies


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Ship Technology Research ; 71 , 2 ; 213-226


    Publication date :

    2024-05-03


    Size :

    14 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English






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