The meaning of the word "ballast" directly depends on the field of its application and the situation in which it was said. Ballast can be used in colloquial speech, in emergency situations and in a technical environment.
Ballast in technology
In engineering, ballast is a load that ensures the landing of the ship and its balance. Engineering is a vast area and includes aircraft construction, shipbuilding and other areas. Therefore, there are several types of ballast.
Dead is called ballast, pre-laid and attached to the body of any equipment. It is associated with the weighting of the technical means. The process of creating dead ballast takes place during construction, so it is difficult to make it heavier in the future, or it is impossible to do it at all. Dead ballast serves as a means of protection from the human factor, that is, a person is not able to create an accident by removing the ballast. Such ballast is anything that does not create a production necessity and strength for the structure. For example, this includes the weighting of the lower part of the structure with concrete.
Ballast made of metal, stones, sand and so on is called solid, that is, it is not a gas or liquid. Today its use takes place on small floating craft and land transport.
Liquid ballast is seawater as well as water that is submerged from a shore or quay. For this, ballast tanks are installed on floating equipment.
In aeronautics, there is also the concept of ballast - it denotes an additional load on balloons. Its purpose is to give the device better stability, balance the forces of attraction and lifting of the entire structure, and shift the center of gravity in the desired direction. Usually stones and sandbags serve as such ballast.
On submarine craft, ballast is an additional weight that is designed to shift the center of gravity and improve stability. Today, sea water serves as such ballast, which fills ballast tanks. In addition, the ballast in this case helps to balance the forces of gravity and buoyancy.
Diving ballast is a weight that helps increase gravity by making the dive object heavier. This can reduce buoyancy.
Emergency situations
In an emergency, ballast includes, among other things, substances and objects that meet certain conditions. That is, everything that cannot be attributed to the means of life of people and the object and to the means of first necessity in an accident can serve as ballast. Also, ballast is considered to be what allows you to correct an emergency situation by reducing weight and improving balancing qualities.
Slang word
The word "ballast" can also be used in a figurative sense - to mean something of little usefulness. It can be a person or an object. For example, you can hear the following expression: "ballast of unnecessary knowledge." This means that in this case, knowledge is a useless thing. If they say that a person is excluded from a certain circle of people, like ballast, this means that in this society he is also useless.