How to Use center of mass in a Sentence

center of mass

noun phrase
  • To stay balanced, skiers must keep their feet underneath their body so the center of mass is over the base of support.
    — Charlotte Harpur, New York Times, 17 Feb. 2026
  • Often, the center of mass is inside the star, but crucially it is offset and not at its center.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 6 Oct. 2025
  • Many stars are formed in binary systems, in which two stars orbit one another around a common center of mass.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 28 Apr. 2026
  • The parent would shift themselves closer to the pivot point, moving the center of mass closer to the pivot.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 6 Oct. 2025
  • This enables the model to account for load distribution, grip forces, and shifts in the robot’s center of mass.
    — Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 20 Apr. 2026
  • Binaries are systems of two stars revolving around a mutual center of mass.
    — Andrej Prša, Space.com, 4 Aug. 2025
  • Because its wheels and body can shift around, the robot can move its center of mass (COM) in any direction.
    — Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 1 Dec. 2025
  • Mechanical issues — notably his center of mass drifting too far forward — may need correction.
    — Derek Vanriper, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2026
  • To maintain all this, the robot’s control systems must continuously calculate its center of mass.
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 15 Feb. 2026
  • Backflips, by contrast, keep the center of mass better aligned, allowing stronger leg drive at takeoff and more effective posture correction mid-air.
    — Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 23 Feb. 2026
  • The potential energy of the pyramid—the energy needed to lift the mass above ground level—is simply the product of acceleration due to gravity, mass, and the center of mass, which in a pyramid is one-quarter of its height.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 27 May 2020
  • According to experts, shorter humanoids like PM01 benefit from a lower center of mass, which reduces tipping risk and requires less rotational torque to complete the maneuver.
    — Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 23 Feb. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'center of mass.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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