On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:23:27 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Sun, 22 Feb 2009 08:19:02 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:15:04 -0500, "Roger Long"
wrote:

"IanM" wrote

You *are* missed.

Well, thank you. OK, I'll throw something into the pot. Here's a first
draft of something I may come back to later. A discussion along the same
lines got started here quite a while ago and disolved into the usual flame
war. I brought it up over at the high class bar where I hang out now and
another RBC refugee complained that I never finished my explanation here and
was I going to leave them hanging over there as well? It's winter and there
are only so many hours a day I can work on my boat so I whipped this up:

http://www.rogerlongboats.com/Stability.htm

Sorry, Virginia, buoyancy is imaginary.

Rather a long drawn out exercise in semantics, isn't it? All to prove
that, a beautiful, buoyant ball bounding over the wine-dark sea,
isn't.

For me it's more than that. The best explanation of why a boat floats
that I've seen, and a straightforward explanation of what affects boat
stability. Of course I'm not an engineer, and do get a bit befuddled
when the going gets a bit heavy.
I did glean that Wayne's boat rolls quickly due to a lengthy GM, and
that it's not necessarily a bad thing.
Have to go back and reread to figure out what the hell GM is.

--Vic

Given that the dictionary gives one definition of buoyancy as:

2. (Physics) The upward pressure exerted upon a floating body
by a fluid, which is equal to the weight of the body;
hence, also, the weight of a floating body, as measured by
the volume of fluid displaced.
[1913 Webster]

It seems that the writer has gone the long way round to prove an
already accepted meaning for the word.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)