Matter anything which have mass and occupy space (i.e.

have volume) and

which can be felt i.e. solid, liquid and gases.
Particle / point object infinitely small part of matter for which we can ignore size
(i.e. volume can be assumed to 0).
System of particle when study of motion of finite no. of particle is done
together they are called system of particles.
Body Fragment of matter which occupy limited area (i.e. volume is fixed) and
which has shape is called body. (in simple solids) It is group of infinite particles.
Smooth body body which doesnt oppose relative motion of other bodies on its
surface. (friction=0)
Rigid body body whose particles have no relative motion to each other.
No-body in nature is either perfectly smooth or perfectly rigid.
Real bodies deform under influence of forces but in most cases
deformation is negligible so we can assume then rigid body

is used for finite change,

is used for infinitely small changes. For

calculus they are used interchangeably but when we talk about

dx

compare it without any limit with change in other quantity then

and

should be used. If we can find absolute values for any variable then for
infinitely small change (i.e. for change tends to 0) we use

dx

but if we

cant measure absolute value and only can measure infinitely small
differences in value of variable then we use

x . Best example is

thermodynamic first eq.

till now we studied for point particle motion only and applied result to
body of finite size assuming that their motion can be described as motion
of particle. Now we will study the motion of extended bodies (simply body
or rigid body) beyond this limitation.
1. Different kind of motion a rigid body can havea) Pure translational - at any instant of time every particle of the body
has the same velocity. Ex- rectangular block sliding down an inclined
plane
b) Pure rotational - in rotation of a rigid body about a fixed axis, every
particle of the body moves in a circle, which lies in a plane
perpendicular to the axis and has its centre on the axis. Ex- celling fan.
Particles on axis remain stationary.
c) Precession (also a type of
rotational)- in rotation of a rigid body
if axis is not fixed but one point of axis
is fixed i.e. no translational motion
taking place. Ex- spinning top (point of
contact of the top with ground is fixed
i.e. pivoted) axis of such a spinning
top moves around the vertical through
its point of contact with the ground,
sweeping out a cone.

Other ex- oscillating table fan

d) Combination of translational and rotational - The motion of a rigid
body which is not pivoted or fixed in some way is either a pure
translation or a combination of translation and rotation. Ex- cylindrical
object rolling down an inclined plane.
2. Centre of mass
a) For system of 2 particles - take the line
joining the two particles m1 and m2 to be
the x- axis and the distances of the two
particles be x1 and x2 respectively from
some origin O. Then position of centre of
mass of system C is

m x +m x
X = 1 1 2 2
m1 +m2

Special case - Thus, for two particles of equal mass the centre of
mass lies exactly midway between them.

x +x
X = 1 2
2

b) For system of n particles in 1-D n

mi xi

m x +m x ++ mn x n i=1
X = 1 1 2 2
= n
m1 +m2+ +mn

mi x i

= i=1

mi

i=1

c) For system of n particles in 2-D (plane) -

mi xi

X = i=1

mi y i

Y = i=1

Special case - Thus, for three particles we have a plane which can
have them, if they are of equal mass the centre of mass lies on
centroid of the triangle formed by the particles.

x +x +x
y +y +y
X = 1 2 3 Y = 1 2 3
2
2

d) For system of n particles in 3-D n

mi xi

X = i=1

mi y i

Y = i=1

mi z i

Z = i=1

M
n

mi ri

i=1
we can write these combinedly as positionvector form as
R=

If the

origin of the frame of reference (the coordinate system) is chosen to be

n

the centre of mass then

e) For rigid body- i.e.
distribution of mass.

mi r i=0
i=1

we can treat the body as a continuous

we assume rigid body of mass M is made of element of equal

mass dm (so we have equal mi and continuous distribution i.e. distance
between consecutive dm be same)
n

X=lim

m 0

mi x i xdm ydm zdm

i=1
=
Y =
Z =
M

The centre of mass is not the point at which a plane separates the
distribution of mass into two equal halves. Centre of mass is like the pivot
point which balances seesaw of masses about itself, with respect to the
torques produced by them.
L

Ex- for uniform road -

X =

x .( ML dx)

xdm 0
=
M

L
2