Center of Mass of a Rigid Body

Center of Mass of a Rigid Body

When a bulk object (say a bat) is thrown at an angle in air as shown in Figure 5.1; do all the points of the body take a parabolic path? Actually, only one point takes the parabolic path and all the other points take different paths.

The one point that takes the parabolic path is a very special point called center of mass (CM) of the body. Its motion is like the motion of a single point that is thrown. The center of mass of a body is defined as a point where the entire mass of the body appears to be concentrated. Therefore, this point can represent the entire body.

For bodies of regular shape and uniform mass distribution, the center of mass is at the geometric center of the body. As examples, for a circle and sphere, the center of mass is at their centers; for square and rectangle, at the point their diagonals meet; for cube and cuboid, it is at the point where their body diagonals meet. For other bodies, the center of mass has to be determined using some methods. The center of mass could be well within the body and in some cases outside the body as well.