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
Variable-mass system to the center of mass of the body, and v is the velocity of the body. In astrodynamics, which deals with the mechanics of rockets, the term "v" is often called the effective exhaust velocity and denoted "v". There are different derivations for the variable-mass system motion equation, depending on whether the mass is entering or leaving a body (in other words, whether the moving body's mass is increasing or decreasing, respectively). To simplify calculations, all bodies are considered as particles. It is also assumed that the mass is unable to apply external forces on the body outside of accretion/ablation