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- Dictionarycentre of gravity
noun
- 1. a point from which the weight of a body or system may be considered to act. In uniform gravity it is the same as the centre of mass.
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Centre of gravity is an imaginary point where the total weight of a body is concentrated for convenience in calculations. Learn how to find it, how it differs from centre of mass, and how it affects the behaviour of objects in gravity.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Learn what is the centre of gravity, a theoretical point where the weight of an object is concentrated. Find out how to calculate it for symmetrical and asymmetrical bodies, and how it differs from the centre of mass.
- What Is "Center of Gravity"?
- Why Do Tall Things Topple Over?
- Why Does Gravity Make Your Body Tip Over?
- What's The Best Way to Balance?
- How Does It Help to Know About Center of Gravity?
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Throw a ball in the air and gravity pulls it straight back down. Noteverything moves like this when gravity acts on it. Most objects arenot nice, neat shapes like balls. That means gravity acts on them inmore complex ways. Even so, all objects behave as though their mass(the stuff they're made from) is concentrated at a point called their center of...
Thinking about center of gravity helps us answer questions like this. Stand up straight,then try leaning over to one side. Very quickly you'll reach a pointwhere your whole body feels like it's about to topple over. You'renot actually moving but turning about your ankles. Your headmoves faster than your knees. In fact, your whole body turns aroundy...
Imagine your body is not a single, solid mass but a huge sack ofpotatoes standing upright. Gravity pulls on the whole sack, but italso acts on each potato separately, pulling each one downward. Whenyou lean over to one side, the "potatoes" at the top of your bodywork like a lever, making your top half turn and topple about yourankles. The more you ...
Lower your center of gravity
The lower your center of gravity, the easier it is to keep your balance.If you're sitting on a chair, you can lean over more than if you'restanding up. With your center of gravity low, you can lean further toone side or the other without creating enough turning force to tipyou over. That's why racing cars (and military vehicles like Humvees)are designed with very low centers of gravity: the lower they are tothe ground, the less risk there is that they'll tip over, no matterhow fast they go. P...
Counterbalance
Tightrope walkers use a slightly different trick to master their center ofgravity. If you've ever watched a tightrope walker, you'll havenoticed they never simply walk across the rope. Some stretch theirarms out or carry a long stick or an umbrella. Others crouch down orbend their knees. Still others ride bicycleswith weights danglingsome way beneath them. These balancing aids help to give tightropewalkers more control over their center of gravity. If they can keeptheir center of gravity dire...
Buy time with inertia
Inertia(the tendency still objects haveto stay still and moving objects to keep moving) helps too. A tightrope walker weighs quite a lot. That means theyhave a certain amount of inertia and it takes quite a bit of time fortheir body to move to one side or the other. If they feel themselvestipping, they have enough time to move another part of their body (ora stick or umbrella they're carrying) to the other side. Thatproduces a tipping force in the opposite direction that keeps thembalanced. L...
If you're a skeptic, you might think science is full of useless bits of informationyou never really need to know, but center of gravity isn't one of them. Last winter,the lane where I live froze over completely and turned to a sheet of ice. What's the best way to walk down a frozen street? Assuming you don't have mountaineering boots, the safest wa...
Learn what center of gravity is and how it affects your balance and the stability of objects. Find out how to calculate center of gravity and why it matters for various activities and situations.
In this article, we will learn the center of gravity and its equation. We will also learn about the center of gravity of different shapes. The center of gravity of a body is a point where the weight of the body acts and the total gravitational torque on the body is zero.
Jan 29, 2024 · The centre of gravity of an object is the point at which the weight of the object may be considered to act. For example, for a person standing upright, their centre of gravity is roughly in the middle of the body behind the navel, and for a sphere, it is at the centre.
Jul 17, 2024 · The center of gravity is the point where the lines intersect. This procedure works well for irregularly shaped objects that are hard to balance. If the mass of the object is not uniformly distributed, we must use calculus to determine center of gravity.
Learn the meaning of centre of gravity as the point where an object's weight is balanced, or the most central part of something. See how to use this term in sentences from literature and the Cambridge English Corpus.