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Center of mass
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"Center of gravity" redirects here. For the military concept, see Center of gravity (military).
In physics, the center of mass of a system of particles is a specific point at which, for many purposes, the system's mass behaves as if it were concentrated. The center of mass is a function only of the positions and masses of the particles that comprise the system. In the case of a rigid body, the position of its center of mass is fixed in relation to the object (but not necessarily in contact with it). In the case of a loose distribution of masses in free space, such as shot from a shotgun, the position of the center of mass is a point in space among them that may not correspond to the position of any individual mass. In the context of a uniform gravitational field, the center of mass is sometimes called the center of gravity.

The center of mass of a body does not always coincide with its intuitive geometric center, and one can exploit this freedom. Engineers try hard to make a sport car as light as possible, and then add weight on the bottom; this way, the center of mass is nearer to the street, and the car handles better. When high jumpers perform a "Fosbury Flop", they bend their body in such a way that it is possible for the jumper to clear the bar while his or her center of mass does not.

Examples
The center of mass of a two-particle system lies on the line connecting the particles (or, more precisely, their individual centers of mass). The center of mass is closer to the more massive object; for details, see barycenter below.
The center of mass of a ring is at the center of the ring (in the air).
The center of mass of a solid triangle lies on all three medians and therefore at the centroid, which is also the average of the three vertices.
The center of mass of a rectangle is at the intersection of the two diagonals.
In a spherically symmetric body, the center of mass is at the center. This approximately applies to the Earth: the density varies considerably, but it mainly depends on depth and less on the other two coordinates.
More generally, for any symmetry of a body, its center of mass will be a fixed point of that symmetry.

[edit] History
The concept of center of gravity was first introduced by the ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, and engineer Archimedes of Syracuse. Archimedes showed that the torque exerted on a lever by weights resting at various points along the lever is the same as what it would be if all of the weights were moved to a single point — their center of gravity. In work on floating bodies he demonstrated that the orientation of a floating object is the one that makes its center of gravity as low as possible. He developed mathematical techniques for finding the centers of gravity of objects of uniform density of various well-defined shapes, in particular a triangle, a hemisphere, and a frustum of a circular paraboloid.

2006-10-30 04:03:26 · answer #1 · answered by Mysterious 3 · 0 0

Search for "center of mass" on Yahoo answers (see the "search for questions" right below "ask.".

2006-10-30 11:57:14 · answer #2 · answered by WildOtter 5 · 0 0

when u go to the center of that object questions and answers will pop up on u hahaha

2006-10-30 18:58:50 · answer #3 · answered by gleopathra 3 · 0 0

try google and find some online books...
in case if u want the hard copy...go for h.c .verma..concepts of physics..

2006-10-30 11:53:24 · answer #4 · answered by PIKACHU™ 3 · 0 0

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