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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.
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.
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. Even so, the 'center-of-gravity' can be as well defined within ...
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.
In classical mechanics, the central-force problem is to determine the motion of a particle in a single central potential field.A central force is a force (possibly negative) that points from the particle directly towards a fixed point in space, the center, and whose magnitude only depends on the distance of the object to the center.
In physics, if variations in gravity are considered, then a center of gravity can be defined as the weighted mean of all points weighted by their specific weight. In geography, the centroid of a radial projection of a region of the Earth's surface to sea level is the region's geographical center.
In its original concept, gravity was a force between point masses. Following Isaac Newton, Pierre-Simon Laplace attempted to model gravity as some kind of radiation field or fluid, [citation needed] and since the 19th century, explanations for gravity in classical mechanics have usually been taught in terms of a field model, rather than a point ...
In a uniform field with no additional forces, a charged particle will gyrate around the magnetic field according to the perpendicular component of its velocity and drift parallel to the field according to its initial parallel velocity, resulting in a helical orbit. If there is a force with a parallel component, the particle and its guiding ...