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Centroid
Centroid
MNATSAKANIAN
r1 + " + rn + ( r1 + a ) + " + ( rn + a )
R=
2n
r1 + " + rn 1 1
= + a = r + a,
n 2 2
so R is at the midpoint of the segment joining r and r + a. Figure 3. Alternate method for finding the centroid of an L-shaped lamina.
A
A
M
M
s c
p
(a) (b) (c) P N B P M¢ N A¢ B
Figure 2. Centroid of an L-shaped lamina found by using Archimedes’s (a) (b)
Lemma twice. Figure 4. Determining the centroid of two intersecting line segments.
M O
c M O M O
T t
P B
e N
Q
N N
Figure 5. Alternative method for finding the centroid of APB. (a) (b)
M O
1 1
c c12
T t
2 2
P B
e N 3 4
R
Q (a) (b)
Figure 6. The centroid c lies on MN and also on the bisector of angle MON. Figure 8. A triangle divided by its midlines into four congruent triangles.
c1 r m r
m
c12 c12
tr
c f (a)
3
4 f (a/2)
c3 c34 c4
(a) (b) r
Figure 9. Determining the centroid of a triangular lamina. a/2
pieces are congruent and each edge is half that of the cor- a a
responding edge of T. The pieces numbered 3 and 4 are
translates of triangle 1, whereas piece number 2 in the cen-
ter is obtained by rotating triangle 1 through 180° about Figure 10. Denote by f (α) the distance from the center of the circle to the
centroid of the arc subtended by an angle of 2α radians.
the center of their common edge.
Triangles 1 and 2 together form a parallelogram whose
centroid c12 is at its center, which is at the midpoint of the are translates of each other. The lamina is made up of the
common base of triangles 1 and 2 and also on the median three corner triangles, together with a centrally symmetric
of both triangles 1 and T, as shown in Figure 8(b). hexagon such that each pair of opposite edges are of equal
Now refer to Figure 9. Let r be a vector from the upper- length. One fringe benefit of this modified proof is that it
most vertex A of T to a point alleged to be the centroid c1 of not only locates the centroid but at the same time gives the
triangle 1, and let m be the vector (along the median) from distance of the centroid from each vertex.
A to the midpoint of the opposite side of triangle 1. We
Example 8. The centroid of a circular arc.
wish to prove that r and m are parallel. By the translation
property of centroids, the terminal points of the dotted vec- The Archimedes Lemma can also be used to find centroids
tors in Figure 9(a) represent the centroids c3 and c4 of tri- of curved figures. For example, a standard calculus exercise
angles 3 and 4, respectively. Since triangle 4 is a translation is to show that the centroid of a circular arc of radius r that
of triangle 3, property 5 tells us that the centroid c34 of subtends a central angle of 2α radians lies along the radius
triangles 3 and 4 together lies midway between c3 and c4. that bisects the arc at a distance r(sin α)/α from the center.
Now the large triangle T is divided into two parts, the par- When α = 0 this distance is to be interpreted as r, which
allelogram with centroid c12 and the two triangles 3 and 4 agrees with the fact that (sin α)/α → 1 as α → 0.
with centroid c34, so by the Archimedes Lemma the cen- This result can be deduced from the basic properties of
troid c of T is on the line segment joining c12 and c34 which, centroids. Refer to Figure 10, which shows a circular arc of
in turn, is parallel to and equal in length to the vector r. radius r with central angle 2α radians. By symmetry, the
Hence the vector from c12 to c is tr, where t lies between 0 centroid lies on the radial line that bisects this arc. Let f (α)
and 1, as shown in Figure 9(b). Therefore the vector from A denote the distance from the center of the circle to the cen-
to c is the vector sum m + tr. But triangle 1 can be obtained troid. The bisector divides the arc into two symmetric arcs
of α radians, and the two centroids of these smaller arcs are
from T by scaling all distances from vertex A by the factor
located at a distance f (α/2) from the center. By the
½, so by the scaling property of centroids we have r =
Archimedes Lemma, the centroid of the larger arc 2α must
½(m+tr), which implies m = (2 – t)r. This shows that r and m
lie on the line segment joining the centroids of the smaller
are parallel because m is a positive scalar times r.
arcs. This line segment is perpendicular to the radial line
Hence the two centroids c1 and c are on the median from
from the center to the centroid of the larger arc. Therefore,
vertex A to the opposite side. Applying the same argument from the right triangle in the figure we see that f (α) =
to each of the other vertices we see that c is on each of the f (α/2) cos(α/2) or, replacing α by 2α, we find that
three medians. This shows that the medians of any triangle
intersect at the centroid of the triangle. As already shown f (2α) = f (α)cosα, with f (0) = r. (5)
in Example 1, this point is also the centroid of the three This is a functional equation relating f (2α) with f (α). We
vertices, and the distance from each vertex to the centroid will show that the only function that satisfies (5) and is con-
is two-thirds the length of the median. tinuous at 0 is f (α) = r(sinα)/α, as required.
Note. The authors have devised a variation of this proof Solution of the functional equation (5). The function f0 de-
that the reader may wish to discover independently. It in- fined by f0(α) = r(sin α)/α if α ≠ 0, f0 (0) = r, satisfies (5)
volves dividing the large triangle into nine congruent tri- because of the double-angle formula sin(2α) = 2sinαcos α.
angles by trisecting each of its edges. The corner triangles Also, f0 is continuous at 0. Now let f be any solution of (5)