Center of mass versus center of surface

542 Views Asked by At

Let's consider that an object has a uniform mass

The center of surface is

$$\vec C_s=\frac{\iint_{\mathbb{S}} \vec rdS}{\iint_{\mathbb{S}} dS}$$

And the center of mass is

$$\vec C_v=\frac{\iiint_{\mathbb{V}} \vec rdV}{\iiint_{\mathbb{V}} dV}$$

For a sphere or a cube, both result the same point.

I am wondering,

1- For which objects are they necessarily the same?

2- For a CAD design which is described by surface triangles, calculating $\vec C_v$ is hard. Is $\vec C_s$ a good approximation?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

4
On BEST ANSWER

Center of mass and center of surface necessarly coincide for symmetric object like spheres, cubes, cylinder indeed in these cases the center of mass coincides with a center of symmetry. Otherwise it is not necessarly true and the approximation could not be so good.