Find CM of Round Bottom Cone | Centre of Mass Problem

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around finding the center of mass (CM) of a round bottom cone, which is conceptualized as a combination of a regular cone and a hemisphere. Participants explore the feasibility of breaking the shape into these components to facilitate the calculation of the CM.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster attempts to understand if the round bottom cone can be divided into a cone and a hemisphere, and how to combine their CMs. Some participants suggest using superposition and common coordinate systems to find the CMs of the individual shapes.

Discussion Status

The discussion is active, with participants questioning the placement of the origin for the shapes and how it affects the calculation of the combined CM. Guidance has been offered regarding the placement of the origin and the method of treating the shapes as point masses.

Contextual Notes

Participants are considering the implications of different origin placements and the intersection of the cone and hemisphere in their calculations. There is an emphasis on the symmetry of the shapes involved.

Gogsey
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Is there anyway of breaking up the parts of an a round spherical bottomed cone into a regular cone and a hemisphere?

I can find the CM of a cone with its tip on the origin, and a hemisphere with its flat bottom in the x-y plane. Can I break the round bottomed cone up into these 2 parts? How would I go about combining them to find the CM of the round bottomed cone?

The z-axis goes though the centre of the round bottomed cone lengthways.
 
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Yes, superposition can be used to find the CM of the object. Find the CM of the hemisphere then find the CM of the cone using a common coordinate system. These two locations can treated as point masses then be used to find the CM of the object.
 
Does that mean I can but the flat bottom of the hemisphere at the origin, and the tip of the cone at the origin? Or do I have to put say the cone tip at the origin, and the flat bottom of the hemisphere at the top of the cone?

So then how do I find the combined CM for the object?
 
It does not matter where you place the origin but a convenient location would be where the cone and hemisphere meet and intersect with the line of symmetry. To answer your second question, how would you find the CM of two point objects?
 

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