Displacement is defined as?

Displacement is defined as?

• A. The weight of water that the boat must push out of the way to float
• B. The total weight of the boat
• C. The volume of water displaced by hull
• D. The maximum displacement allowed by stability

Answer: (A)

Displacement is the weight of water the hull must push aside to float. This follows Archimedes’ principle: the buoyant force acting on a submerged hull equals the weight of the displaced water, and when the vessel is floating, that buoyant force balances the vessel’s weight. So displacement is expressed as a weight (how much water, in weight terms, is displaced), not the volume. The volume of water displaced is related, but in ship terms displacement is a weight measure, typically given in tons. The notion of a maximum displacement is a design limit related to stability, not the definition itself.

Displacement is the weight of water the hull must push aside to float. This follows Archimedes’ principle: the buoyant force acting on a submerged hull equals the weight of the displaced water, and when the vessel is floating, that buoyant force balances the vessel’s weight. So displacement is expressed as a weight (how much water, in weight terms, is displaced), not the volume. The volume of water displaced is related, but in ship terms displacement is a weight measure, typically given in tons. The notion of a maximum displacement is a design limit related to stability, not the definition itself.