[Math] Center of mass of a circular plate with different densities on either half

calculusintegration

Find the coordinates of the center of mass of a circular plate of radius 1 with center at the origin (0,0) made with a material whose density is 2 on the upper semicircular region and 1 on the lower semicircular region.

I found the area by computing the integral from 0 to 1 of √(1-x^2)dx and multiplying that by 4, giving me π. But when I try to compute the y-coordinate, I don't get the right answer. It is supposed to be 4/(9π) but I got 4/(3π). So how do I solve this?

Best Answer

You can also treat the circular plate as a "composite object" made up of two semi-circular plates of different uniform densities. If you already know (or can calculate easily, or even just look up) that the centroid of a uniform semi-circular "lamina" of radius 1 is $ \ \frac{4}{3 \pi} \ $ above its center, then the centroid of the "upper" semicircle lies at, say, $ \ y \ = \ + \frac{4}{3 \pi} \ $ and the centroid of the "lower" one at $ \ y \ = \ - \frac{4}{3 \pi} \ $ .

The upper plate has twice the mass of the lower one, so the centroid of the entire circle lies two-thirds of the way toward the "upper" centroid along the line joining the two centroids (using a "weighted average" -- in fact, the origin of the term). (This line lies along the "vertical" line of symmetry of the entire circle, so $ \ \overline{x} \ = \ 0 \ $ ) .