Centaur Sleepover: An Open Letter to My Center of Mass, or Gravity

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

An Open Letter to My Center of Mass, or Gravity

Oh Hey Center of Gravity,

I appreciate you reminding me of how terrible you are. My knees are killing me, thanks for asking. I forgot how terrible you were and toppled over when I tried to sprint after that striker in yesterdays game. You wouldn't know that, cause your just a mean location of all the mass in my body, with no consciousness whatsoever! So why am I writing to you?

Well, there's a great reason for that, which is I'm refusing to admit that I'm physically awkward, especially when I fall down repeatedly trying to catch up to someone much faster than me and already has quite a lead due to my inept sense of myself in space. Have you heard of this?

$\mathbf{p}=M\mathbf{v}_\mathrm{cm}$

It's important. Don't ask why, just learn it. I may be the brains of this operation, but you sir need to learn your boundaries. Got it? Well how bout this one?

$\mathbf{R} = \frac{M_0 \mathbf{R}_0 + m_3 \mathbf{r}_3}{M_0 + m_3} = \frac{ (m_1 + m_2) \left( \frac{m_1 \mathbf{r}_1 + m_2 \mathbf{r}_2}{m_1 + m_2} \right) + m_3 \mathbf{r}_3}{M_0 + m_3} = \frac{m_1 \mathbf{r}_1 + m_2 \mathbf{r}_2 + m_3 \mathbf{r}_3}{m_1 + m_2 + m_3}.$