Blue Sky Science: With what things can your center of gravity help you?

Q What things can your center of gravity help you with?

—  Jakob Westin

A Cindy Kurasch, University of Wisconsin-Madison department of kinesiology:

Gravity is an invisible force that pulls objects toward one another. It’s also the force that pulls us toward the Earth.

The center of gravity is the middle point where all of a body’s weight or an object’s weight is.

In people, it’s in a lot of different places, but in general it’s right about the middle of your body, a little bit above your belly button.

There are two big things you can do with your center of gravity: You can use it to make yourself more stable in situations where you want to be stable or to help you move quickly if that’s what you want to do.

In football, for example, blockers use their center of gravity to stay balanced so they can make space for a runner to run for a touchdown. If they didn’t, they would easily be pushed out of the way by a defender.

To use the center of gravity more effectively, a blocker lowers it, putting the body in a more balanced position. That way, when the defender is trying to get to the person with the ball, he can’t.

In everyday life sometimes we want to be balanced, too. For example, tying your shoes. If you try to tie your shoes without bending over or without lowering your center of gravity, you might tip over. But if you do lower your center of gravity, you should be more balanced and be able to tie your shoes without any trouble.

The best thing we can do in terms of our center of gravity is be aware of where it is and then use it to our advantage.