Discussion:

This lab experiment consisted in locating the metacentric point in order to test the buoyancy stability of a lab pontoon under certain circumstances. The metacenter is the point of intersection of the buoyant force and the center of gravity. In order to verify the stability conditions of an immersed body is necessary to locate its metacentric point. One of the conditions is that when the center of buoyancy and center of gravity are coincident, the body is stable.

In this experiment the center of gravity was higher than the center of buoyancy causing a slight tilt when changing the position of mass, although it became unstable as the experiment carried on, it still was stable enough to produce a moment to counter the action as the metacenter increases. When the center of gravity is above the center of buoyancy, the location of metacentric Height is lower. In our experiment everytime there was a change on the position of mass that would increase the angle of tilt, the metacentric height and the position of mass would move to more than 0.05 m ,thus the metacentric height would be increase, however the possibility for the pontoon to tip would also increase significantly.

● Conclusion:

The apparatus remained stable throughout the experiment. Data recorded for the metacentric point was obtained from theoretical and experimental formulas using two different centers of gravity, 0.075 m and 0.125 m. Although the position of mass changed with each trial, the metacentric point remained closely the same experimentally, averaging 0.09 m and 0.03 m respectively. The metacentre for both centers of gravity were 0.0707m and 0.113