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Centre of gravity

Engineers often defy gravity. Think of bridges, aeroplanes, or houses. Even washing lines.

Engineers often defy gravity. Think of bridges, aeroplanes, or houses. Even washing lines.

To understand their tasks they need to know the magnitude of the gravity force, and where it acts. That is, they need to know weight and centre of gravity.

It’s not only used in Statics. For example, in Dynamics, when dealing with accelerations engineers need to know the related concepts of mass and centre of mass. But that’s another story.

This video sets the scene and explains how to calculate the weight of an object from its mass.

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Through Engineers' Eyes - Expanding the Vision: Engineering Mechanics by Experiment, Analysis and Design

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FutureLearn - Learning For Life

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