Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The point where an imaginary vertical line running through the center of buoyancy of a tilted floating body crosses the line that originally passed vertically through the body's center of buoyancy when it was at equilibrium.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The point at which an upward thrust could be equivalent to the pressure of water upon a floating body which has received a slight rotational displacement about one of the principal axes of its section of flotation.
  • noun In biology, an organism or an organ which, while one of the descendants from an archetype, itself becomes a new archetype around which new divergent or apocentric modifications are produced.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Hydrostatics) The point of intersection of a vertical line through the center of gravity of the fluid displaced by a floating body which is tipped through a small angle from its position of equilibrium, and the inclined line which was vertical through the center of gravity of the body when in equilibrium.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun physics, shipbuilding A midway point between a ship's centre of buoyancy when upright and its centre of buoyancy when tilted; it must be above the centre of gravity to enable a tilting ship to return to an upright position.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (shipbuilding) the point of intersection between two vertical lines, one line through the center of buoyancy of the hull of a ship in equilibrium and the other line through the center of buoyancy of the hull when the ship is inclined to one side; the distance of this intersection above the center of gravity is an indication of the stability of the ship

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French métacentre, from méta- + centre.

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Examples

  • In other words, as long as the intersection M where the arrow Gw–B transects the metacenter plane of the vessel is above G, the ship is stable and will right itself to its original position.

    Modern Science in the Bible Ben Hobrink 2011

  • In other words, as long as the intersection M where the arrow Gw–B transects the metacenter plane of the vessel is above G, the ship is stable and will right itself to its original position.

    Modern Science in the Bible Ben Hobrink 2011

  • In other words, as long as the intersection M where the arrow Gw–B transects the metacenter plane of the vessel is above G, the ship is stable and will right itself to its original position.

    Modern Science in the Bible Ben Hobrink 2011

  • In other words, as long as the intersection M where the arrow Gw–B transects the metacenter plane of the vessel is above G, the ship is stable and will right itself to its original position.

    Modern Science in the Bible Ben Hobrink 2011

  • NSF supercomputer centers are collaborating towards a "metacenter."

    Fccset Initiatives In The Fy 1994 Budget ITY National Archives 1993

  • The curve may be constructed in the following manner: Having found by calculation the position of the transverse metacenter, M, for a given displacement -- Figs. 1 and 2 -- the metacentric height, G M, is then determined either by calculations, or more correctly by experiment, by varying the position of weights of known magnitude, or by the stability indicator itself.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 Various

  • For a vessel with a given displacement, the metacenter and center of gravity being known, it is easy to lay off in the form of a diagram its stability or power of righting for any given angle of heel.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 Various

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