[Math] How to calculate the $x$ and $y$ coordinate for the center of mass of a bounded region

calculus

Consider the region bounded by the three curves:

$$\begin{aligned} &y=\frac{2x}{5}\\ &y=1\\ & x=x_0 \end{aligned}$$

Assuming a homogenous distribution of mass, the formula for the coordinates of the center of mass that I was given are: $$\begin{aligned}& x_s=\frac{1}{A}\int_A x \space dA \\ & y_s=\frac{1}{A} \int _A y \space dA\end{aligned}$$

  1. Calculate the center of mass for $x=-0.5$
  2. For what $x_0$ is the center of mass on the $x$-axis. What is $x_s$ in this case?

My attempt:

I tried to sketch the curves and the bounded region first:

enter image description here

So I am trying to find the coordinates of the center of mass of the triangle. But how do I use those formulas? Are $x$ and $y$ in the integral functions?

Best Answer

Hint.

The answer of Matthew Leingang is general. In your case the region is a triangle so you can find the centroid (that coincides with the center of mass since the density is constant) using the fact that the coordinates of the centroid are the means of the coordinates of the vertices.

Related Question