Applications

When does a car topple?

An object topples when vertical line from center of gravity to the ground is outside the base of the object. You can see in the above image that the car A having a higher center of gravity topple quicker than object B having a lower center of gravity. Hence F1 cars are designed to have a very low center of gravity

Why do high jumpers jump like that?

The above jump is called the Frosby jump. You can see that because of the posture, the center of gravity of the athelete is actually below the cross bar. By keeping the center of mass lower the athlete can reduce the effort to jump higher as lower the center of gravity, lower the force required to jump.