The core of an area is the name given to the limited area round its C.G. within which the C·P. must lie when the area is immersed completely; the boundary of the core is therefore the locus of the antipodes with respect to the momental ellipse of water lines which touch the boundary of the area. Thus the core of a circle or an ellipse is a concentric circle or ellipse of one quarter the size.
The C.P. of water lines passing through a fixed point lies on a straight line, the antipolar of the point; and thus the core of a triangle is a similar triangle of one quarter the size, and the core of a parallelogram is another parallelogram, the diagonals of which are the middle third of the median lines.
In the design of a structure such as a tall reservoir dam it is important that the line of thrust in the material should pass inside the core of a section, so that the material should not be in a state of tension anywhere and so liable to open and admit the water.
| Fig. 3. |
17. Equilibrium and Stability of a Ship or Floating Body. The Metacentre.—The principle of Archimedes in § 12 leads immediately to the conditions of equilibrium of a body supported freely in fluid, like a fish in water or a balloon in the air, or like a ship (fig. 3) floating partly immersed in water and the rest in air. The body is in equilibrium under two forces:—(i.) its weight W acting vertically downward through G, the C.G. of the body, and (ii.) the buoyancy of the fluid, equal to the weight of the displaced fluid, and acting vertically upward through B, the C.G. of the displaced fluid; for equilibrium these two forces must be equal and opposite in the same line.
The conditions of equilibrium of a body, floating like a ship on the surface of a liquid, are therefore:—
(i.) the weight of the body must be less than the weight of the total volume of liquid it can displace; or else the body will sink to the bottom of the liquid; the difference of the weights is called the “reserve of buoyancy.”
(ii.) the weight of liquid which the body displaces in the position of equilibrium is equal to the weight W of the body; and
(iii.) the C.G., B, of the liquid displaced and G of the body, must lie in the same vertical line GB.
18. In addition to satisfying these conditions of equilibrium, a ship must fulfil the further condition of stability, so as to keep upright; if displaced slightly from this position, the forces called into play must be such as to restore the ship to the upright again. The stability of a ship is investigated practically by inclining it; a weight is moved across the deck and the angle is observed of the heel produced.