Center of mass separate bodies, such as the planets of the Solar System, the center of mass may not correspond to the position of any individual member of the system. The center of mass is a useful reference point for calculations in mechanics that involve masses distributed in space, such as the linear and angular momentum of planetary bodies and rigid body dynamics. In orbital mechanics, the equations of motion of planets are formulated as point masses located at the centers of mass. The center of mass frame is an inertial frame in which the center of mass of a system is at
Angular velocity of bases. For example, changing to the mobile frame: where formula_46 are unit vectors for the frame fixed in the moving body. This example has been made using the Z-X-Z convention for Euler angles. The angular velocity vector formula_47 defined above may be equivalently expressed as an angular velocity tensor, the matrix (or linear mapping) "W" = "W"("t") defined by: This is an infinitesimal rotation matrix. The linear mapping "W" acts as formula_49: A vector formula_51 undergoing uniform circular motion around an axis satisfies: Given the orientation matrix "A"("t") of a frame, whose columns are the moving orthonormal coordinate vectors