9-52: Locate the centroid for the wire.

Neglect the thickness of the material and

slight bends at the corners.

_
Due to symmetry, we only have to find y and so I am
only going to consider the right of the wire. I will break it up into the following
4 pieces.

The 5 in piece at the bottom

The 8 in vertical piece

The 5 in slanting piece

The short 3 in vertical piece near the top

piece

L (in)

~
y (in)

~
y L (in2)

32

9.5

47.5

9.5

28.5

21

108

_ 108
y = 21 5.14 in. (using the coordinate system shown in the problem)

_ _ _
Example 2: Locate the centroid (x, y , z ) of the wire.

I will use the coordinate system shown in the problem and break the wire into 4 pieces.
will be the semicircular piece in the xy-plane,
will be the short, 6 vertical piece,
will be the 4 horizontal piece, and
will be the 2 13 7.211 slanting piece.

(inches)

~
x
(in)

~
y
(in)

~
z
(in)

~
xL
(in2)

~
yL
(in2)

~
zL
(in2)

8/

32

-4

-24

18

-2

-8

24

2 13 7.211
29.777

14.422
-17.578

0
32

21.633
63.633

L (inches)

_ -17.578
x 29.777 -0.590

_
32
y 29.777 1.07

_ 63.633
z 29.777 2.14

_
Example 3: Locate the center of mass z of the assembly. The hemisphere and
the cone are made from materials having densities of 8 Mg/m3 and 4 Mg/m3 ,
respectively.

It appears that the coordinate system is located such that the origin is at the lowest point on
the hemisphere. I am going to use a different coordinate system, one that has z = 0 located in
the plane joining the cone and hemisphere (100 mm above the coordinate system shown).
Note that it is not necessary to change the units to make them match, since they are going to

divide out (i.e. cancel), leaving us only with the units for z .

hemisphere

cone

Volume
(mm3)

(Mg/m3)

mass
[Mg(mm3/m3)]

~
z
mm

~
(mass) z
Mg (mm4/m3)

2
3
3 (100)

16
3
3 (100)

-300
8

-2(100)4

1
2
3 (300)(100)

4(100)3

300
4

3(100)4

Totals

_
z=

(100)4
=
28
3
(100)
3
_
problem, z 111 mm.

28
3
3 (100)

(100)4

300
28 10.7 mm, or in the original coordinate system of the

_ _ _
Example 4: Locate the center of gravity (x, y , z ) of the assembly. The
triangular and the rectangular blocks are made from materials having specific
weights of 0.25 lb/in3 and 0.1 lb/in3 , respectively.

(in3)

W
3
(lb/in ) (lb)

~
x

~
y

~
z

~
xW

~
yW

~
zW

(in)

(in)

(in)

in-lb

in-lb

in-lb

Triangular
Piece

(0.5)(4.5)(3)

0.25

27
16

1.5

0.5

2.53125

0.84375

6.75

Block

(3)(4.5)(6)

0.10

81
10

2.25

1.5

18.225

24.3

12.15

Hole

2
3

-0.10

-
15

2.25

3.5

21
8

-0.47124

-0.73304

-0.54978

20.28501

24.41071

18.35022

Totals

_ 20.28501
x 9.57806 2.12 in
_ 24.41071
y 9.57806 2.55 in
_ 18.35022
z 9.57806 1.92 in

9.57806