Knowing how to find the center of an object is important when dealing with physical properties. The laws of physics describing motion and the forces operating upon a body usually only pertain to the body's center of mass. For example, a triangle flying through the air may be spinning as it goes. Trying to mathematically account for its motion as a whole would be a very complex task. However, the center of mass is the point around which all of the other points are rotating, so to keep things simple, a formula describing its trajectory would only pertain to its center.
Instructions
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1
Make a table with three columns for the x-, y- and z-coordinates of the triangles vertices. Enter the coordinates of the vertices into the table, allowing one row for each.
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2
Find the sum of each of the columns. For example, given the vertices (3, 1, 2), (-2, 0, 4) and (0, 5, -1), the total for the x-column would be 1; the y-column would be 6; and, the z-column would be 5.
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3
Divide each of the columns by three and write them as the coordinates of the triangle's center. In the given example the coordinates for the center would be (1/3, 2, 5/3).