We investigated the effect of sensorimotor (or embodied) experience on people's understanding of the concept of center of gravity (CoG). To create an embodied experience, we developed a set of balancing activities using a meter stick and a set of disks. Participants in the embodied group balanced systems of objects directly on their hands. Participants in the hands-on group used a fulcrum to balance the systems of objects but did not directly experience the feeling of balancing a system of objects. Participants in both groups performed better on questions in which: (1) objects are symmetric compared to asymmetric, (2) the system CoG is at the same location as the object CoG compared to when these locations are different, and (3) a yes/no response based on the definition of CoG is required compared to when the CoG location must be explicitly or implicitly located. Participants in both the hands-on and embodied groups showed an improvement in overall accuracy on questions that tested their understanding of concepts related to CoG compared to participants who did not do any balancing activities. The greatest improvement was found on the more challenging questions in which the extended objects are asymmetric, the object CoG is at a different location than the system CoG, and a location related to CoG is explicitly requested.