flotation

1. The act, process, or condition of floating. Also called flotage.
2. The act or an instance of launching or initiating, especially the floating of stocks or bonds or the financing of a business venture by floating stocks or bonds.
3. The process of separating different materials, especially minerals, by agitating a pulverized mixture of the materials with water, oil, and chemicals. Differential wetting of the suspended particles causes unwetted particles to be carried by air bubbles to the surface for collection.
4. The capability, especially of a vehicle tread or tire, to remain on top of a soft surface, such as sand, wet ground, or snow.

A process used to separate particulate solids, which have been suspended in a fluid, by selectively attaching the particles to be removed to a light fluid and allowing this mineralized fluid aggregation to rise to where it can be removed. The principal use of the process is to separate valuable minerals from waste rock, or gangue, in which case the ground ore is suspended in water and, after chemical treatment, subjected to bubbles of air. The minerals which are to be floated attach to the air bubbles, rise through the suspension, and are removed with the froth which forms on top of the pulp. Although most materials subjected to flotation are minerals, applications to chemical and biological materials have been reported.

The process of changing a private company into a public company by issuing shares and soliciting the public to purchase them.

Investopedia Says:
By doing an IPO, the company is able to obtain financing from sources outside of its regular business. This helps finance projects that return the founder's initial investment. Also known as "going public."

For more information on flotation, visit Britannica.com.

The ability of a body to float in a fluid. Flotation occurs if the body-weight is less than the maximum buoyant force of the fluid. Specific gravity is a measure of a body's capacity to float in water. When a swimmer breathes in, the lungs fill with air and flotation is increased. Although flotation is a distinct advantage to a swimmer, many people have learnt to swim without this ability, and some have broken world records.

Keeping that sinking feeling at bay with buoyancy aids
Most boatowners have wished at some time or other that their boats were unsinkable. That feeling is remarkably strong in gales or when one finds oneself unexpectedly among unmarked underwater rocks.The fact is that most boats will sink rapidly if they’re badly holed. Few ordinary bilge pumps can keep up with the inflow of water through a hole the size of a man’s fist.The answer would seem to be flotation, either in the form of waterproof compartments, slabs of plastic foam, air bags, or some other buoyant devices, but the problem is their bulk. You can have all the flotation you want— yes, your boat will certainly be unsinkable—but you’ll pay in the form of reduced accommodation.There’s nothing new about the idea of flotation. That intrepid French sportsman and explorer, Marcel Bardiaux, built some into his 31-foot sloop, Les Quatre Vents, when he single-handed her around Cape Horn from east to west in the 1950s. He fastened empty cans under the side decks in his small cabin and was glad to have them when he went aground on a reef in the South Pacific. The boat was flooded but he managed to float her off, and—with the help of a large rubber life raft that he inflated below—he sailed her to Nouméa, New Caledonia, with the decks awash.To keep afloat a sailboat with a fiberglass hull and a ballast ratio of 35 percent requires at least 1 pound of added buoyancy for every 1.6 pounds of displacement. An additional safety margin of 25 percent is recommended. Wooden hulls need buoyancy equivalent to the weight of the ballast and engine, plus 25 percent.For example, to keep afloat a fiberglass 35-footer displacing 12,500 pounds, you would need 7,812 pounds of buoyancy, plus 25 percent, which equals 9,766 pounds. Air bags and foam provide about 62 or 63 pounds of lift per cubic foot, so you would need about 157 cubic feet of buoyancy. The standard kitchen refrigerator has a volume of 18 cubic feet, so you would need to find space for nearly nine of them on your 35-footer.Small powerboats, rowboats, and sailboats are made unsinkable by means of buoyancy bags or tanks containing air or, in the case of boats such as the Boston Whaler, with enclosed foam.If you’re contemplating adding buoyancy to your boat, seek professional advice. The fastening and positioning of post-construction flotation material is a complicated subject, and one best tackled by a naval architect.See also Watertight Bulkheads.

(DOD, NATO) The capability of a vehicle to float in water.

Look up flotation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Flotation (historically spelled floatation) involves phenomenon related to the relative buoyancy of objects. The term may refer to:

• Flotation, any material added to the hull of a watercraft to keep the hull afloat
• Flotation (archaeology), a process to separate plant remains from soil[1]
• Flotation (geology), a separation process of sediment grains
• Floatation (The Grid single), a 1990 electronic music song by The Grid
• Flotation, an initial public offering of stocks or shares in a company

See also

• Flotation cost or selling cost – distribution cost of issuing new securities
• Flotation process, in process engineering, a method for the separation of mixtures
• Flotation therapy, a technique which uses isolation tanks
• Froth flotation, a process for separating hydrophobic from hydrophilic materials
• Dissolved air flotation (DAF), a water treatment process
• Personal flotation device, a device used to prevent drowning
• Floating

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - flyden, svæven, igangsætning

Nederlands (Dutch)
het drijven, het financieren, scheiding d.m.v. drijfpunt, het op de sneeuw blijven van sneeuwschoenen, oprichting

Français (French)
n. - (Fin) lancement (d'actions), introduction en Bourse, émission (de monnaie), flottement, (Chim) flottation

Deutsch (German)
n. - Schwimmen, Flotation, Gründung, Kapitalaufnahme durch Aktienausgabe

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - επίπλευση, πλευστότητα, (οικον.) έκδοση αξιογράφων από εταιρεία κτλ., ίδρυση εταιρείας

Italiano (Italian)
emissione

Português (Portuguese)
n. - flutuação (f), emissão (f) de títulos (Fin.)

Русский (Russian)
основание предприятия, плавание

Español (Spanish)
n. - flotación

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - flytande, startande

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
漂浮, 发行, 筹资开办

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 漂浮, 發行, 籌資開辦

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 떠오르기, 발행, 설립

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 設立, 発行, 浮揚, 浮体学, 浮遊選鉱

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) طفو , تعويم‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מימון חברה, גיוס כסף, כושר ציפה, הפרדת מרכיבי חומר-גלם מרוסק ע"י כושר הציפה השונה שלהם‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.