In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. For a rigid body containing its center of mass, this is the point to which a force may be applied to cause a linear acceleration without an angular acceleration.
If they wanted this to be an actual, debatable question, they shouldn’t have used ‘center of mass’, as the term has a specific definition and the question has a correct answer; it’s not open to interpretation, like “How would a horse wear pants?” or similar questions.
What you don’t know is that the mass distribution is extremely uneven as there’s a lead ball in the back half (for sweetness), and yeasty air bubbles in the front half.
Would you mind sharing the source of that quote? I’m curious about the ‘relative position […] sums to zero’—relative to what? Suppose the mass is completely contained in the ‘upper right quadrant’ in 3D space (I’m lacking the language skill to express that accurately). Then I can’t find a definition that wouldn’t cause the sum to be positive.
I just grabbed it from Wikipedia, so it’s likely written to be understandable to a layman (which is good, because that’s what I am).
That said, it’s just referring to the mass relative to the point you’re declaring the center of mass. If there’s 15g on the left, there should be 15g on the right; think of it like the center of mass being (0,0,0) on a 3 dimensional graph. 15g on one side is “negative” and on the other is “positive”, so the sum at the (0,0,0) point is 0g.
Obviously the left one.
If they wanted this to be an actual, debatable question, they shouldn’t have used ‘center of mass’, as the term has a specific definition and the question has a correct answer; it’s not open to interpretation, like “How would a horse wear pants?” or similar questions.
Choosing the other one would be known as “rimming”
Wait is this an African horse or a European one?
I don’t know…
AAAAH
Fully laden or unladen?
I don’t think it was meant to be taken seriously, but these are the types of comments I was hoping for. ;)
The most fun thing about this community is responding with serious answers to memes that were intended to be jokes. :)
What you don’t know is that the mass distribution is extremely uneven as there’s a lead ball in the back half (for sweetness), and yeasty air bubbles in the front half.
If a donut were to have a center of mass, would the center of mass be like this or like this?
Would you mind sharing the source of that quote? I’m curious about the ‘relative position […] sums to zero’—relative to what? Suppose the mass is completely contained in the ‘upper right quadrant’ in 3D space (I’m lacking the language skill to express that accurately). Then I can’t find a definition that wouldn’t cause the sum to be positive.
I just grabbed it from Wikipedia, so it’s likely written to be understandable to a layman (which is good, because that’s what I am).
That said, it’s just referring to the mass relative to the point you’re declaring the center of mass. If there’s 15g on the left, there should be 15g on the right; think of it like the center of mass being (0,0,0) on a 3 dimensional graph. 15g on one side is “negative” and on the other is “positive”, so the sum at the (0,0,0) point is 0g.