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In particular, a non-uniform gravitational field can produce a torque on an object, even about an axis through the center of mass. The center of gravity seeks to explain this effect. Formally, a center of gravity is an application point of the resultant gravitational force on the body. Such a point may not exist, and if it exists, it is not unique.
A common misconception occurs between centre of mass and centre of gravity.They are defined in similar ways but are not exactly the same quantity. Centre of mass is the mathematical description of placing all the mass in the region considered to one position, centre of gravity is a real physical quantity, the point of a body where the gravitational force acts.
The mass-center is a fixed property for a given rigid body (e.g. with no slosh or articulation), whereas the center-of-gravity may, in addition, depend upon its orientation in a non-uniform gravitational field.
In classical mechanics, a gravitational field is a physical quantity. [5] A gravitational field can be defined using Newton's law of universal gravitation.Determined in this way, the gravitational field g around a single particle of mass M is a vector field consisting at every point of a vector pointing directly towards the particle.
Also, the mass-center is a fixed point within a rigid body, whereas in a non-uniform gravitational field (i.e. one where the gravity gradient effect is not negligible), the center of gravity will depend upon the orientation of the rigid body within the non-uniform gravity field.
It is defined so that the gravitational force experienced by a particle is equal to the mass of the particle multiplied by the gravitational field at that point. Gravitational flux is a surface integral of the gravitational field over a closed surface, analogous to how magnetic flux is a surface integral of the magnetic field. Gauss's law for ...
However, the Earth has a rugged surface and non-uniform composition, which distorts its gravitational field. The theoretical value of gravity can be corrected for altitude and the effects of nearby terrain, but it usually still differs slightly from the measured value.
As part of that, the metric gravitational field , , =,,,, is redefined and decomposed into the non-relativistic gravitational (NRG) fields (,,) : is the Newtonian potential, is known as the gravito-magnetic vector potential, and finally is a 3d symmetric tensor known as the spatial metric perturbation.