Objects

• Ballast tank
  Ballast tank
  A ballast tank is a compartment within a boat, ship or other floating structure that holds water.-History:The basic concept behind the ballast tank can be seen in many forms of aquatic life, such as the blowfish or argonaut octopus, and the concept has been invented and reinvented many times by...
  
  , a device used on ships and submarines and other submersibles to control buoyancy and stability
• Ballast weight
  Ballast weight
  Ballast weight is something that is added to a race car to alter its performance.In most racing series, cars have a minimum weight. Often, the actual weight of the car is lower, so ballast is used to bring it up to the minimum. The advantage is that the ballast can be positioned to affect the car's...
  
  s, metallic plates used to bring auto racing vehicles up to the minimum mandated weight
• Electrical ballast
  Electrical ballast
  An electrical ballast is a device intended to limit the amount of current in an electric circuit. A familiar and widely used example is the inductive ballast used in fluorescent lamps, to limit the current through the tube, which would otherwise rise to destructive levels due to the tube's...
  
  , used to stabilize the current flow in lamps
• Sailing ballast
  Sailing ballast
  Ballast is used in sailboats to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the sail. Insufficiently ballasted boats will tend to tip, or heel, excessively in high winds. Too much heel may result in the boat capsizing. If a sailing vessel should need to voyage without cargo then ballast of...
  
  , ship's ballast, used to weigh a ship down
• Track ballast
  Track ballast
  Track ballast forms the trackbed upon which railway sleepers or railroad ties are laid. It is packed between, below, and around the ties. It is used to facilitate drainage of water, to distribute the load from the railroad ties, and also to keep down vegetation that might interfere with the track...
  
  , the layer of crushed rock or gravel upon which railway track is laid
• Ballast carried aboard an aircraft, for example:
  • in gliding to increase speed and/or adjust the aircraft's center of gravity
  • in a balloon as a buoyancy compensator
    Buoyancy compensator (aviation)
    The static buoyancy of airships during a trip is not constant. It is therefore necessary to take measures to control the buoyancy and thus the altitude, the so-called buoyancy compensation.-Changes which have an effect on buoyancy:...
    
    
• Ballast tractor
  Ballast tractor
  A ballast tractor is a heavy haulage road vehicle designed to pull or push heavy or exceptionally large loads. Unlike the tractor unit from an articulated trailer, the ballast tractor is designed or adapted to pull or push loads from a drawbar...
  
  , a heavy haulage road vehicle designed to pull or push heavy or exceptionally large loads

Places

• Ballast, Coevorden, a village in the northeastern Netherlands
• Ballast Point, a neighborhood in Tampa, Florida, United States

Other

• Ballast (film)
  Ballast (film)
  Ballast is a 2008 film directed by Lance Hammer. It competed in the Dramatic Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the awards for Best Director and Best Cinematography...
  
  , a 2008 film about the effect of one man's suicide on three people
• Ballast (band), a Canadian punk band formed in 2001