10.1 Center of Mass Theory
The Center of Mass of a body is the place where it can be said that all of the mass of the body seems to act. We can do a simple experiment to demonstrate this with a normal dinner plate. The following, Figure 10-1, is a diagram of our dinner plate. The two lines on the plate meet at its center. If we pick up the plate and carefully place our forefinger at the center point and then slowly move the plate with our free hand until the plate is horizontal, then we should be able to balance the plate on our finger and let go of the plate with our free hand.
The center of the ...
