Learn about MIT TechTV and check out our resource page for media makers at MIT.

MIT TechTV is an initiative of MIT Engineering

Center of Mass Trajectory

You need Adobe Flash Player to watch videos on this site.

Odd-shaped objects with their centers of mass marked by orange paint are thrown. While the objects appear to follow very wobbly trajectories when viewed under bright lights, under black lights you can see that their centers of mass travel in smooth parabolas.

Then center of mass is not necessarily in the center of an object, as demonstrated by the last object in the video (a weighted disk).

Comments (1)

very nice explanection of difference between the centers of a body
(sorry for my english)

Posted 5 months by salvatore.viva

You need to log in, in order to post comments. If you don’t have an account yet, sign up now!

Created
June 03, 2009 15:26
Category
Tags
License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (What is this?)
Formats
Flash Video (flv), mov
Additional Files


Viewed
1951 times

More from MIT Department of Physics Technical Services Group

Adjustable Capacitor with Dielectric

Adjustable Capacitor with Dielectric

Added 9 months ago | 00:02:06 | 2012 views

Confetti and the Van de Graaff Generator

Confetti and the Van de Graaff Gene...

Added 10 months ago | 00:00:00 | 2811 views

Spray Paint Oscillator

Spray Paint Oscillator

Added 1 year ago | 00:00:51 | 1663 views

MIT Physics Demo -- Dipole Antenna

MIT Physics Demo -- Dipole Antenna

Added 1 year ago | 00:00:57 | 2081 views

MIT Physics Demo -- Galvanometer Principle

MIT Physics Demo -- Galvanometer Pr...

Added 1 year ago | 00:00:47 | 1823 views

MIT Physics Demo -- Conducting Glass

MIT Physics Demo -- Conducting Glass

Added 1 year ago | 00:01:12 | 1815 views