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Updated: Oct 3, 2025

Impacts of Free-falling Spheres on a Deep Liquid Pool with Altered Fluid and Impactor Surface Conditions
Published on: February 17, 2019
Mechanics of floating bodies
Robert Beig1, Bernd G Schmidt2
1Gravitational Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
Abstract:
We introduce and study the mechanical system which describes the dynamics and statics of rigid bodies of constant density floating in a calm incompressible fluid. Since much of the standard equilibrium theory, starting with Archimedes, allows bodies with vertices and edges, we assume the bodies to be convex and take care not to assume more regularity than that implied by convexity. One main result is the (Lyapunov) stability of equilibria satisfying a condition equivalent to the standard 'metacentric' criterion.
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