UNIVERSITY OF THE CORDILLERAS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

MECH 1 STATICS OF RIGID BODIES

UNIT 1: CENTER OF GRAVITY OF A FLAT PLATE

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CENTER OF GRAVITY OF A
FLAT PLATE

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 CENTER OF GRAVITY
Every part of a body possesses weight. Weight is the force of attraction between a body
and the Earth and is proportional to mass of the body.
The weights of all parts of a body can be considered as parallel forces directed toward
the center of the Earth. Therefore, they may be combined into a resultant force whose
magnitude is equal to their algebraic sum.
If a supporting force, equal and opposite to the resultant, is applied to the body along
the line of action of the resultant, the body will be in equilibrium. This line of action will
pass through the center of gravity of the body.

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 CENTER OF GRAVITY
The center of gravity of some objects may be found
by balancing the object on a point. Take a thin
plate of thickness 𝑡, shown in 𝐹𝑖𝑔. 10 − 1. Draw the
diagonals of the upper and lower faces to intersect
at 𝐽 and 𝐾, respectively. If the plate is placed on a
pivot at 𝐾, the plate will not fall. That is, it is
balanced. If suspended from 𝐽, the plate will hang
horizontally. The center of gravity of the plate is at
the center of the line 𝐽𝐾.

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 CENTER OF GRAVITY
If we suspend a uniform rod by a string (𝐹𝑖𝑔. 10 − 1)
and move the position of the string until the rod
hangs horizontally, we can determine that the
center of gravity of the rod lies at its center.
Through the use of similar procedures it can be
established that a body which has an axis, or line, of
symmetry has its center of gravity located on that
line, or axis. Of course, if a body has more than one
axis of symmetry, the center of gravity must lie at
the intersection of the axes.

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 FIRST MOMENTS
In the preceding modules moments of forces with respect to points and lines have
frequently been used. In the analysis of many problems in engineering, however,
expressions are frequently met which represent moments of volumes, masses, areas,
and lines. The moment of a volume, mass, area, or line with respect to an axis or plane
is the algebraic sum of the moments of the elementary parts of the volume, mass,
area, or line, the moment of an elementary part being the product of the elementary
part (volume, mass, area, or line) and its distance from the moment axis or plane.
This moment of a volume, mass, etc., is called the first moment when it is desired to
distinguish it from the moment of inertia (or second moment) of the volume, area, etc.
,since the coordinate distances of the parts of the volume, mass, area, or line enter
into the expression for the first moment to the first power and into the expression for
the second moment to the second power.

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 CENTROIDS
In dealing with a system of parallel forces in a In a similar way the moment of a volume,
plane it was found from the principle of mass, area, or line with respect to an axis or
moments that the algebraic sum of the plane (made up of the sum of the moments of
moments of the forces about a point or axis is the several parts or elements of the volume,
equal to the moment of the resultant of the mass, area, or line) may be expressed as the
forces with respect to the same point or axis. product of the whole volume, mass, area, or
That is, 𝑅 ⋅ 𝑑 = Σ𝑀𝑂 This equation was line, and a distance, 𝑥ҧ (or 𝑦,
ത etc.), from the axis
frequently used in Resultant of Parallel Forces or plane such that this product equals the
to locate the position of the resultant, that is, algebraic sum of the moments of the
to determine 𝑑 after first finding the sum of elementary parts of the volume, mass, area,
the moments of the forces, Σ𝑀𝑂 . When the or line.
position of the resultant is known, however,
the moment of the system of forces is most
easily found by determining the moment 𝑅 ⋅ 𝑑
of the resultant.
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 CENTROIDS
Imagine a force (perpendicular to the page)
of as may pounds as there are square inches
in the area applied at the centroid of the
rectangle in 𝐹𝑖𝑔. 10 − 4. Then the moment of
the rectangular area bout the y-axis. That is,

𝑀𝑦 = 𝐴𝑥ҧ
In a like manner, the moment of the area
about the x-axis will be the product of the
area and the distance from the centroid to
the axis. That is,

𝑀𝑥 = 𝐴𝑦ത
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 CENTROIDS
This relation is sometimes called the principle
of moments for areas, volumes, etc., and it Σ 𝑎𝑖 𝑥𝑖 Σ 𝑎𝑖 𝑦𝑖
leads to an equation of the same form as 𝑥ҧ = 𝑦ത =
𝐴𝑇 𝐴𝑇
does the same principle in the case of forces.
Wherein the first moment area us equivalent
to the sum of the moments of the elemental
areas composing the total area Thus, for an Where:
area𝐴 𝑇 , an element of which is denoted by𝑎𝑖 , 𝑥ҧ = 𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑖𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎
the equation is, 𝑦ത = 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑖𝑑𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎
𝑥𝑖 = 𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑖𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎
Σ 𝑎𝑖 𝑥𝑖 = Σ𝑎𝑖 ∙ 𝑥ҧ = 𝐴 𝑇 𝑥ҧ 𝑦𝑖 = 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑖𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎
Σ 𝑎𝑖 𝑦𝑖 = Σ𝑎𝑖 ∙ 𝑦ത = 𝐴 𝑇 𝑦ത 𝑎𝑖 = 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎
𝐴 = 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎

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 CENTROIDS
The resulting distance 𝑥ҧ or 𝑦,
ത etc., is called the The centroid of area is also defined as the
centroidal distance, and the point located by point corresponding to the center of gravity
the centroidal distances is called the centroid of a plate of infinitesimal thickness. The term
of the volume, mass, area, or line. The centroid “centroid” rather than “center of gravity” is
of a volume, mass, area, or line, then, is that used when referring to areas (as well as lines
point at which the whole volume, mass, area, and volumes) because such figures do not
or line may be conceived to be concentrated have weight.
and have the same moment with respect to
an axis or plane as has the volume, mass,
area, or line when distributed in its natural
way.

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CENTROIDS OF AREAS AND
LINES

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CENTROIDS OF COMMON GEOMETRIC SHAPES

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CENTROIDS OF COMMON GEOMETRIC SHAPES