Question

Does the center of gravity of a body change, when it is deformed ?

Answer 1

Hint: The center of gravity of an object is the point about which the entire weight of the body might be considered to act. In a uniform gravitational field, the center of gravity and center of mass of an object are the same. We will answer our question under the assumption that there is a uniform gravitational field at all the points.

Complete step by step answer:
In a uniform gravitational field, the center of gravity and center of mass are the same points, so if you can find the effects on the center of mass of an object upon distortion, the effects will be the same on the center of gravity. For that purpose let us consider the following example:

In the above diagram, the area of the two designs are the same and their lateral length are considered to be equal. Even then, we could clearly see the shift in center of mass when the object is distorted. Here, this shift in center of mass of the object is denoted by ‘d’.
Thus, we can say that the center of mass of an object changes upon distortion.
Hence, the center of gravity of a body also changes, when it is deformed.

Note: Our reason for the presumption of uniform gravitational field lies in the fact that it is very hard to locate the center of gravity of an object under a non-uniform gravitational field. This is because, in this case, we have to consider the force of attraction about the point masses which are also randomized. And the integration of all these forces is very tough to calculate at our level of understanding.