Center of Mass, An Introduction

Introduction

Take a plate from your cupboard, preferably not your best china, and balance it on the tip of your finger. If your finger is at the exact center of the plate and you are very still, you can probably pull it off. The center of mass is at the center of the plate because the plate is symmetric all the way around.

Now place a pork chop on one side of the plate. The center of the plate is no longer the center of mass. The pork chop side tilts downward, and pretty soon you have a mess on the kitchen floor and a happy dog.

Integral calculus can be used to find the center of mass of various objects in 2 or 3 dimensions, and even higher dimensions if you have a vivid imagination. Higher order integrals, called moments, are used to measure the energy of spinning objects.