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Stability Exam Questions Toppling

The document discusses concepts related to center of mass and stability. It asks questions about which objects would topple over when lifted based on their center of mass. It also asks how to find the center of mass of irregular shapes and explains why buses are designed with low centers of mass for stability. The answers explain that objects topple if their center of mass is outside their base, and how to experimentally determine the center of mass of irregular objects by suspending them and finding the point of intersection of vertical lines. For buses, a lower center of mass provides more stability and prevents toppling until a large tilt angle.

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867 views4 pages

Stability Exam Questions Toppling

The document discusses concepts related to center of mass and stability. It asks questions about which objects would topple over when lifted based on their center of mass. It also asks how to find the center of mass of irregular shapes and explains why buses are designed with low centers of mass for stability. The answers explain that objects topple if their center of mass is outside their base, and how to experimentally determine the center of mass of irregular objects by suspending them and finding the point of intersection of vertical lines. For buses, a lower center of mass provides more stability and prevents toppling until a large tilt angle.

Uploaded by

ezzaldeengm
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Centre of Mass / Stability

Questions
1 The diagrams show different objects and their centres of mass. The arrows show
the directions in which these objects have been lifted.

Which of the objects above will topple over? Explain why you chose that item.
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2 The diagram shows a square piece of flat cardboard.

a Where is the centre of mass of the cardboard?


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b The cardboard is then torn to leave an irregular shape as shown.

Describe an experiment you would carry out to find the position of the new
centre of mass.

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3 The diagram shows a double-decker bus and the position of its centre of mass.

a Explain why having the centre of mass in the position shown is an


advantage for the bus.

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b Using a protractor, find the maximum angle by which the bus can be tilted
on its left wheels before toppling over. (Hint: if the line of action of the
weight of a body lies outside the base of the body there will be a resultant
moment and the body will tend to topple over.)

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Answers to questions
1 Only c will topple over, because the centre of mass is ‘outside’ the base of the
object. Once the line of action of the weight (which can be thought of as
concentrated in the centre of mass) acts outside the base of the object, the
object will topple over.
2 a In the exact centre of the cardboard where the two axes of symmetry cross
c Use a pin to freely suspend the card, and draw a vertical line downwards
from the pin. Repeat the procedure, suspending the card from a different
point to give another similar line. The centre of mass will be at the point
where the two lines cross.
3 a A lower centre of mass will mean that the bus will be more stable and will
not topple over until tilted to quite a large angle.
d The easiest method is to measure the angle between the floor and the line
joining the bottom of the left wheels of the bus (the pivot) to the centre of
mass, as shown in the diagram. Then take this angle (38°) away from 90°.
You would have to tilt the bus by that angle to position the centre of mass
vertically above the left wheels. (Answer: 90° –38°  52°)

The second method, as shown in the next diagram, is to copy the diagram
and rotate the bus about the pivot point (bottom of the left wheels) until
the centre of mass is vertically above the pivot. Then measure the angle
directly. (Answer  52°)

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