centre of mass

English

Diagram of an educational toy that balances on a point: the centre of mass (C) settles below its support (P). Any object whose centre of mass is below the fulcrum will not topple.

Alternative forms

• center of mass (American spelling)

Noun

centre of mass (plural centres of mass) (British spelling, Canadian spelling)

1. (mathematics, physics) A point, near, or within a body at which the object's mass can be assumed to be concentrated; it coincides with the centroid for a body of uniform density, and with the centre of gravity in a uniform gravitational field.

Synonyms

• centre of gravity (in a uniform gravitational field)
• centre of inertia (rare)

Related terms

• centre of buoyancy

Translations

point where the mass can be considered concentrated

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 質量中心／质量中心 (zh), 质量中心 (zh) (zhìliàng zhōngxīn), 質心／质心 (zh) (zhìxīn), 质心 (zh) (xìnxīn)

• Czech: těžiště (cs) n
• Danish: massemidtpunkt n
• Finnish: massakeskipiste
• French: centre de masse (fr) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: tömegközéppont
• Italian: baricentro (it) m
• Romanian: centru de masă n
• Russian: центр масс (ru) m (centr mass), центр ине́рции (ru) m (centr inɛ́rcii), барице́нтр (ru) m (baricéntr)
• Swedish: masscentrum (sv) n

Anagrams

• center of mass