Calculation of Centroids in Irregular Shaped Objects

by Marc Isaac

Submitted : Fall 2014

The centroid of a shape is found by dividing the total moment of the shape by the total area. For an arbitrary shape, this is often done by finding the integral of the function between two points multiplied by the distance from the axis. This is then divided by the area, which is also found by integration. When the function is not given for the shape, which is usually the case out of an academic setting, the trapezoid rule can be used to find the centroid of the object. This project uses the trapezoid rule and Excel to calculate the centroid of an arbitrary shape without a given function.

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