Center of mass rigid body, the gravity forces will not cause the body to rotate, which means the weight of the body can be considered to be concentrated at the center of mass. The linear and angular momentum of a collection of particles can be simplified by measuring the position and velocity of the particles relative to the center of mass. Let the system of particles "P", "i"=1...,"n" of masses "m" be located at the coordinates r with velocities v. Select a reference point R and compute the relative position and velocity vectors, The total linear and angular momentum vectors relative to the
Rigid body dynamics the rigid body. The velocity of the points R along their trajectories are where ω is the angular velocity vector of the body. Work is computed from the dot product of each force with the displacement of its point of contact If the trajectory of a rigid body is defined by a set of generalized coordinates "q", "j" = 1, ..., "m", then the virtual displacements δr are given by The virtual work of this system of forces acting on the body in terms of the generalized coordinates becomes or collecting the coefficients of δq For simplicity consider a trajectory