Centre of Mass

The Centre of Gravity (C of G) is the point in/on an object that gravity appears to act. It is also known as the Centre of Mass and is the point at which you could squash all the mass of the object and it would appear to behave in the same way.

The Centre of Mass of a symmetrical body is along the axis of __________. For other objects the centre of mass can be found by suspending it and using a plumb line. This is because a body will come to rest with its centre of mass __________ the point of suspension.

Centre of Mass is mainly used when considering the stability of objects. If the line of action of the weight of a body lies outside the base of the body there will be a resultant moment and the body will tend to topple.

This object will
topple on to its
__________
This object will
topple on to its
__________

If the center of mass will become lower by the object tipping left or right then it topple over under the influence of gravity. It is said to be __________.

If the centre of mass will be rasied by the object tipping left or right then it will not move under the influence of gravity. It is said to be __________.

__________ meta-stable __________

Therefore to create a stable object we desire a __________ base with a __________ centre of mass.