(ELI5) What is the center of gravity?
In: 9
It’s a theoretical point where you can consider the mass of the object to be.
When calculating the outcome of physics or mechanical problems, it’s way simpler to assume all the mass to be in one point and calculate the outcome for that.
But you have to calculate in advance where exactly this point is or it doesn’t work.
For simple object it’s quite easy to find, in a sphere or a ball, the center of mass is in the geometrical center of the object. On a truck? Well you need to do a lot of math. It may take less to actually weigh the truck from each wheel and calculate the center of mass using this empirical data.
But once you have that center location, you can calculate things assuming all the truck’s mass is in that point. You can calculate that complex object’s behavior with ease. How much that truck will lean forward when braking, how balanced will be in a turn… easy stuff to do once you know its mass and where that mass virtually is.
It doesn’t apply to all problems, there are things you can’t calculate by using the center of mass as a substitute for the real mass. For example the rotational momentum of an object can’t be calculated with this method.
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