Physics Assignment Help | Centre of Mass |www.expertsmind.

com
D De ef fi in ni it ti io on n o of f C Ce en nt tr re e o of f M Ma as ss s
Centre of mass: Every physical system has related with it a certain point whose motion
characterizes the motion of the entire system. When the system goes under some external forces
than this point goes as if the whole mass of the system is concentrated at this point and also the
external force is operated at his point of translational motion. This point is known the centre of
mass of the system.
Centre of mass of object of n point masses or n particles is that point about which moment of mass of
the system is zero, it seems that if about a particular origin the moment of mass of system of n point
masses is zero, then that particular origin is the centre of mass of the object.
The concept of centre of mass is a pure mathematical relation. If there are n
particles having mass m
1
, m
2
.m
n
and are placed in space (x
1
, y
1
, z
1
), (x
2
, y
2
,
z
2
) .(x
n
, y
n
, z
n
) then centre of mass of system is described as (X, Y, Z)
where
=
1
M
i i
i
m x

Y =
1
M
i i
i
m y

and Z =
1
M
i i
i
m z

where M =
i
i
m

is the
net mass of X the system.
Y
Z
X
1 1 1 1
m (x , y ,z )
0(x, y,z)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
O
Find the point with coordinates (X, Y, Z). This point is known the centre of mass of the given
collection of the particles. If the position vector of the i
th
object is r
i
, the centre of mass is
described to have the position vector
CM i i
i
1
R = m r
M

Where M = m
1
+ m
2
+ .. + m
n
=
n
i
i 1
m
=

where i
i i i
r x i y j z k
. . .
= + +
1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2
CM
n n n n
m (x i +y j + z k) +m (x i +y j + z k) +..
1
R =
m (x i +y j + z k) M

(
(

1 1 2 2 n 1 1 2 2 n
1 1 2 2 n
i(m x m x .. mx ) j(m y m y .. my ) ..
1
k(m z m z .. mz )
+ + + + + + + + (
=
(
+ + +

M
= i x
cm
+ j y
cm
+ k (z
cm
)
n
i i
i=1
CM
mr
R =
M

This is equation for centre of mass of n point masses.