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Lesson Plan: Center of Mass Physics
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to find an object’s center of mass and analyze the effect of the position of the center of mass on an object’s stability.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- define the center of mass of an object as the point from which the force of its weight acts (in a uniform gravitational field),
- visually estimate the position of the center of mass of regular compound objects,
- recognize that an object is stable if a normal reaction force acts on the object vertically below the position of the center of mass of the object,
- recognize that the center of mass of an object can be a point that consists of empty space within the object,
- identify the common center of mass of multiple objects.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- free body diagrams,
- normal reaction forces.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- calculations that could be used to locate an object’s center of mass,
- considerations of the point at which a normal reaction force would act (assuming that there are normal reaction forces at all points where the base of an object is in contact with a surface).
