Use in Naval Engineering (or Naval Architecture)
Nabla is used in naval engineering (ship design) to designate the volume displacement of a ship or any other waterborne vessel. Where its counterpart, the Greek delta, is used to designate weight displacement (the total weight of water displaced by the ship), the nabla is used to designate volume displacement, or the total volume of water displaced by the ship in units of length cubed.
Read more about this topic: Nabla Symbol
Famous quotes containing the words naval and/or engineering:
“It is now time to stop and to ask ourselves the question which my last commanding officer, Admiral Hyman Rickover, asked me and every other young naval officer who serves or has served in an atomic submarine. For our Nation M for all of us M that question is, “Why not the best?””
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Mining today is an affair of mathematics, of finance, of the latest in engineering skill. Cautious men behind polished desks in San Francisco figure out in advance the amount of metal to a cubic yard, the number of yards washed a day, the cost of each operation. They have no need of grubstakes.”
—Merle Colby, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)