Question

What do you understand by meta-centre?

Answer 1

1. Meta-centre is defined as the point about which a body starts oscillating when the body is tilted by a small angle.
2. Meta-centre is also defined as the point at which the buoyant force's line of action meets the body's normal axis when the body is given a small angular displacement.
3. Initially, the floating body of weight “W” shown below is in equilibrium and hence the centre of gravity (G) and centre of buoyancy (B) lies on the normal vertical axis.

4. When the body is given a smaller angular displacement in a clockwise direction (as shown in the figure above), the centre of buoyancy shifts towards the right from the normal axis and the new centre of buoyancy becomes “B₁”.

5. The line of action of the force of buoyancy in this new position will intersect the normal axis of the body at some point say “M”

6. This point “M” is called the “meta-centre”.

Hence, the meta-centre is the point at which the buoyant force's line of action meets the body's normal axis when the body is given a small angular displacement.