Mechanical Systems in Static Equilibrium

These notes cover the rst eight lectures of PHY 61. Each chapter corresponds to one lecture and should be read before attending the lecture. c Joshua Socolar, Duke University, 2005

Contents
1 Introduction 1.1 Two kinds of fundamental laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Getting started: Classical physics of static systems . . . . . . 2 The concept of force 2.1 Types of forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.1 General discussion of gravity and contact forces . 2.1.2 General discussion of stress and rigid bodies . . . 2.1.3 Looking ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Force is a vector quantity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.1 Vector addition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.2 Vector notation expressing force balance . . . . . 2.2.3 Representing vectors with Cartesian coordinates 2.2.4 Units of force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.5 Adding several vector forces . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 The magnitude of a vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Newtons third law and force balance equations 3.1 Newtons Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.1 Implications of Laws 1 and 2 for static systems . 3.1.2 Newtons Third Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.3 Force is generated by an interaction . . . . . . . 3.2 Describing physical systems with equations . . . . . . . 3.2.1 Example: Analyzing a stationary pulley system . 3.3 Force diagrams Internal and external forces . . . . . . 3.4 Some useful math . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4.1 Unit vectors and components of vector equations 3.4.2 The dot product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4.3 Counting equations and unknowns . . . . . . . . 3.5 Strategy for analyzing static systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3 4 6 7 7 9 10 10 11 12 12 14 14 15

17 . 18 . 18 . 19 . 20 . 20 . 21 . 23 . 23 . 23 . 24 . 25 . 26

4 The 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5

concept of torque What is this thing called torque? . . . . . . . . . . . The direction of the torque vector . . . . . . . . . . The magnitude of the torque vector . . . . . . . . . Computing the torque using the cross product . . . . A nontrivial example of the computation of torques .

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27 28 29 30 31 32 36 36 37 38 38 39 39 40 40 42 43 44 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 51 52 53 54 55

5 Torque balance in static systems 5.1 In static systems, the choice of origin is arbitrary . . 5.2 Example of torque balance analysis . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.1 Start with a diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.2 Count the unknowns and equations . . . . . . 5.2.3 Choose an origin and Cartesian axes . . . . . 5.2.4 Write the force and torque balance equations 5.2.5 Solve for the desired quantity . . . . . . . . . 5.2.6 Check you answer using limiting cases . . . . 6 Torques due to gravity and contact forces 6.1 Center of gravity and center of mass . . . . . . . . 6.2 Torque due to gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 Example: A beam supported by columns . . . . . . 6.3.1 Treating the beam as the system of interest 6.3.2 What does a negative value of F mean? . . . . . . .

7 Frictional forces and associated torques 7.1 A simple approximate law for static friction . . . . . . . . . 7.2 Example: A block on a ramp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3 Torque from a distributed force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4 Criterion for tipping over . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5 A nontrivial example: Pulling a chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.1 Draw a diagram and count unknowns and equations 7.5.2 Identify the precise question of interest . . . . . . . . 8 Static uids: pressure and buoyancy 9 Concepts, Terms, and Techniques to Know

Introduction

Physics is the study of the fundamental laws of nature and their consequences. Much of the beauty of the discipline derives from the fact that a few simple laws can be invoked to explain a tremendous range of physical phenomena. The simplicity of the fundamental laws, however, does not guarantee that we can easily understand their consequences. Physical systems can exhibit complicated behavior or consist of huge numbers of pieces that collectively do things we would never have guessed were hidden in the simple laws.

1.1

Two kinds of fundamental laws

When we speak of fundamental laws, we really have two dierent kinds of law in mind. First, we have the general framework that determines the meaning of the fundamental concepts of mass, force, distance, time, the nature of the building blocks of matter (subatomic particles), and the manner in which particles behave when subjected to forces of unspecied origin. In the 20th century, the classical, or Newtonian framework was superseded by the relativistic, quantum mechanical framework. We now know that under extreme conditions matter and energy behave in ways that are highly counterintuitive and can only be accurately described with the aid of rather sophisticated mathematical constructs. Quantum mechanics, special relativity, and general relativity teach us that very small, very fast, and very massive systems behave in ways that are not captured correctly by the simple laws elucidated by Newton in the 17th century. Quantum mechanics is of particular importance for engineering, because it plays a crucial role in determining the properties of familiar materials compressibility, electrical conductivity, etc. The second type of fundamental law is a specic theory describing the forces that arise between particles. These are the laws of gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force. At present, it is well established that electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces are dierent aspects of a single electroweak force, just as electrical and magnetic forces are joined in the theory of electromagnetism. There are also clear indications that the strong nuclear force and electroweak force may be manifestations of a unied theory. Gravity is proving more dicult to understand, but recent advances in string theory suggest that all forces, including gravity, may be related at the most fundamental level. 3

The fundamental laws of physics express deep insights into the nature of space, time, matter, and physical observation. Unfortunately, it is quite dicult to communicate these insights directly, as they require a certain mathematical and physical vocabulary that takes years to learn. And even if we could pass right to the relativistic quantum mechanical description of the world, we would nd that the overwhelming majority of familiar, everyday phenomena from human to geological scales are most eciently described using the good old classical theories developed between 1600 and 1900. The corrections predicted by the true theories are almost always too small to measure.

1.2

Getting started: Classical physics of static systems

So we need to make some choices about how to approach the tremendous variety of phenomena that fall within the domain of physics. In this course, we will take a practical perspective. We will learn the classical descriptions of the forces acting on objects and study the manner in which the objects move in response to those forces. Here are three reasons for taking this approach: 1. Historically, this is how physics as a discipline began, which means that many of the more modern theories are built on the conceptual foundation that we will study. 2. For pedagogical purposes, it helps to study rst those phenomena that are familiar to all of us, without having to be distracted by the exact theory of tiny eects that are quite dicult to observe and measure. At least that way we can have some intuitive clue about whether our conclusions make sense, and we will get the benet of seeing the relevance of the topics we study to our daily experience of the world. 3. With the notable exceptions of recent developments in nanotechnology and materials engineering, the vast majority of engineering applications are well served by the classical theories. Now even the subject of classical physics turns out to require multiple concepts that build on each other in important ways. We cannot simply pick whatever physical phenomenon most interests us and start with that. For reasons that may not become entirely clear until you have completed several more physics and engineering courses, it makes sense to begin with the 4

analysis of simple mechanical systems balls, ramps, beams, tubs of water, springs, planets, etc. We leave such objects as electric and magnetic elds, light, heat, owing uids, and more complex materials for later semesters. Almost all modern introductory physics textbooks, including CLRC, begin with the description of the motion of single particles, then move on to systems of particles and more complicated rigid bodies. Though this approach has its merits, we will take a dierent one in the interest of emphasizing physics concepts of particular importance in engineering. We will rst develop the mathematical language for dealing with static systems, systems in which all the forces on each object are balanced so that nothing moves. After learning how to analyze the forces at play in static systems, some of which may be rather complex, we will turn to the question of dynamical processes that result when forces do not balance and follow the books presentation. This handout presents the topics we will cover in the rst seven lectures of the course. The topics covered here can also be found in CLRC, but there they are distributed over several dierent chapters.

The concept of force

Key points

Section 2.1: You need to know what sorts of forces to look for when you encounter a mechanical system whose behavior you want to understand. Here they are: Fundamental forces Gravity: The downward force (toward the center of the earth) we know as weight. Electrical and magnetic forces: For present purposes, these refer only to familiar electric and magnetic phenomena, such as the attractive force between a magnets and a piece of steel or between a balloon containing a static electricity charge and a wall. Eective forces arising from atomic scale electromagnetic interactions: Normal force: The force perpendicular to a surface that prevents another object from passing through or denting the surface. Static or sliding friction: The force parallel to a surface that resists the sliding of another object along that surface. Buoyant force: The force on a (partially) submerged object due to pressure variation in a uid. Drag: The force that tends to slow an object down as it moves through a uid (gas or liquid). Thats all. Look for examples of these sorts of forces as you walk around campus, and ask your friends or instructor about any situation in which the forces at play dont seem to be classiable as one of the above. Section 2.2: Force is a vector quantity (unlike mass, for example, which is a scalar). An object will sit still if and only if the vector sum of the forces acting on it is zero. If an object is stationary when there are N

distinct forces acting on it, we may write

N

Fn = 0.
n=1

(1)

To work with an equation of this type, we often choose a particular Cartesian coordinate system and write separate equations for the x, y , and z components of the force.

Explanations

2.1

Types of forces

The above list includes four types of forces classied as eective forces as opposed to fundamental. The distinction is important for understanding the unity and simplicity of physical law. Eective forces represent the net eect of the actions of vast numbers of interacting particles. A complete theory of them would reveal how the fundamental electromagnetic forces occurring between atoms gives rise to the readily observable forces familiar to us, such as the force a spring exerts when compressed or stretched. Your physics professor would love to talk over such theories with you, but the discussion requires a certain physics and mathematics vocabulary that it will take some time to learn. We begin by clarifying precisely what we mean when we speak of forces and learning how to identify where they are acting in simple mechanical systems. 2.1.1 General discussion of gravity and contact forces

Think for a minute about a parked car just sitting there on a at road. What determines how strong its parts have to be just to keep it from collapsing under its own weight? Obviously, they need to be strong enough to withstand the forces acting on them. But what are those forces? How can we give a quantitative description of them and a theory for how to predict them without measuring every single one? Well come to the quantitative description soon, but rst lets just see if we can even name the quantities we are hoping to describe. Perhaps the most obvious force at play in this system is gravity. This is the force that 7

pulls the car downward, toward the center of the earth, and is ultimately responsible for the fact that most parts have to withstand any force at all. We will have more to say about gravity later in the course. For now, we just note that each part of the car is pulled downward by gravity and the strength with which it is pulled is called its weight. Lets focus now on one particular part, the rim of one wheel for example. We know it is being pulled down by gravity. So what holds it up? At the most basic level, the answer is electric and magnetic forces that act between the molecules of tire and those of the rim. To attempt to analyze the whole car in terms of its constituent molecules would be terribly inecient, however, so it is useful to make a catalog of the several dierent ways in which electromagnetic forces make themselves felt at a more macroscopic level.1 The rst place to look for the eects of the electromagnetic force is in objects that are touching each other. Since strong electrical forces between atoms prevent the two objects from passing through each other, there is a contact force between them. For example, there is a contact force between the tire and the rim, and this force somehow prevents the gravitational force on the rim from pulling it downward. There are also contact forces between the rim and the axle it supports, between the axle and the shock absorbers it supports, between the shock absorber and the chassis it is attached to, etc. Ultimately all of these forces conspire to prevent each individual part from moving under its gravitational weight. But there is a lot more going on in the car. There are actually two different kinds of contact force at play: the normal force that prevents objects from passing through each other; and a frictional force that resists the tendency of the objects to slide past one another. Frictional forces are crucial for holding the car together, as they are what prevent bolts from unscrewing when pulled on. The threads of the bolt are pressed against the threads of the nut that holds it on. If it werent for the frictional force that counteracts the tendency of the bolt to turn, it would simply slide out, twisting as it goes, whenever it experienced a force pulling it out of the nut. The ability to identify all of the normal and frictional forces at play in a given physical system is one important skill that this course aims to develop.
The system under consideration happens to be one in which there are no signicant macroscopic electrical or magnetic forces. Systems with strong macroscopic electromagnetic forces do exist, however, and will be the source of much wonder and excitement next semester.
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2.1.2

General discussion of stress and rigid bodies

Gravitational and contact forces are measures of how strongly one object pulls or pushes on another. This is not quite all we need to consider, though. It will also be useful to be able to talk about the state of the interior of an object that is subject to some forces. The term we use to describe the internal state is stress. The simplest example of stress is the tension in a string that is being pulled from both ends. The tension at a given point on the string is a measure of the strength of the forces that pull the mass at that point in opposite directions. For an ideal string by which we mean one with negligibly small mass the tension is the same at all points along the string. Another simple case is the compression in a rod being pushed from both ends or a column holding up a weight. Fundamentally, we know that what holds the string together is electromagnetic forces within and between molecules. When we pull on one end of the string, the molecules at that end stretch and move ever so slightly and thereby exert forces on the neighboring molecules above them. This mess of intermolecular forces is conveniently described at the macroscopic level by saying that the string is under tension. Similarly, when we say that a column holding up a roof beam is under compression, we are summarizing the macroscopic eect of all the molecular interactions within the column. All real materials deform from their unstressed state when held under tension or compression. In many cases, the deformation is small enough that useful explanations of the objects behavior can be found under the simplifying assumption that there is no deformation at all. When we make this approximation, we say that we are describing a rigid body. We will treat all of the objects we discuss this semester as rigid bodies, with three notable exceptions: springs, which undergo substantial changes in length when held under compression or tension; strings, which can bend around obstacles but have xed length; and uids, which take the shape of their container and can be moved out of the way by oating or submerged solid objects. A third example of stress is the pressure in a gas that is being conned by a container, say a balloon. The force the balloon skin exerts on the gas from all directions results in a pressure. The concept of pressure will allow us to analyze situations like a boat oating in water or a stone feeling lighter when it is submerged in a uid. The force that a uid exerts on objects due to the variation of the pressure within the uid is call a buoyant force. 9

2.1.3

Looking ahead

How would you describe the way that a tire holds up a rim using the concepts of tension, compression, and pressure? This is a tricky question! To analyze the situation fully you have to have a detailed theory of the material properties of the tire, the rim, and the air inside the tire. For example, you have to know how the air pressure varies from point to point. We wont worry about that for now, but you might enjoy arguing about what holds the rim up if you and a friend think you understand pressure already. We will discover that for the purpose of answering many interesting questions about complicated physical systems like our car, there are useful theoretical shortcuts. We can say alot about the car without calculating the detailed deformation of the tire, for example. It is worth keeping in mind, however, that in some circumstances it is precisely these sorts of details that are the focus of an engineers attention. (Suppose you were asked to design the precise structure of the part of the tire that attaches to the rim.) Now reading prose descriptions of tires and rims and the forces between them will only get us so far. In order to communicate with sucient precision and to be able to make useful calculations, we have to develop a vocabulary of mathematically precise terms and a system for representing the quantities of interest pictorially. Look back at the list of types of forces at the beginning of this section and think about how you could communicate the important features of a given force to a friend. Note that it is not good enough to say only how strong the force is; you also have to specify in what direction it acts. This may seem trivial when the force is gravity and you know your friend already understands that gravity pulls things downward, but what about other forces? If your car is parked on a hill, for example, how would you describe the force of friction that keeps it from sliding down the hill? In the next subsection, we begin building the necessary vocabulary for discussing such situations.

2.2

Force is a vector quantity

To fully describe a given force we have to specify both its strength and its direction. The appropriate mathematical construct for representing a force is a vector. A vector is a single entity, often pictured as an arrow, that has both a magnitude and a direction. When we use a vector to describe a force, the magnitude tells you how strong the force is and the direction

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(a)

(b)

Figure 1: Adding vectors. (a) The sum of two vectors. The solid arrow on the right represents the sum of the two dotted arrows. (b) A case where the sum of two forces is zero, so that the object the forces are acting on remains stationary. tells you which way the forces pushes or pulls. For example, when a car sits on a level road, it experiences a gravitational force (due to its gravitational interaction with the earth) pulling it downward and a normal force (due to the interactions between its tires and the road) pushing it upward. The forces have the same magnitude (or strength), but they act in opposite directions and hence correspond to dierent vectors. 2.2.1 Vector addition

We use boldface letters with little arrows over them to designate vector quantities. The symbol Fg , for example, might specify the force due to gravity on the car. The F reminds us that the vector in question represents a force; the subscript g here is a label that reminds us we are referring only to the force that gravity exerts on the rim, which may be one of many forces acting on it. The great thing about using vectors to represent forces is that there is an easy rule for determining the net eect of two forces acting on the same object. To add the two force vectors, we simply place the tail of one arrow at the head of the other, then construct the arrow that goes from the tail of the latter to the head of the former, as illustrated in Figure 1(a). In the case of the tug of war shown in Figure 1(b), the two forces have the same strength and exactly opposite directions, making the result of adding them together may be a vector of zero length.

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2.2.2

Vector notation expressing force balance

The crucial physics point is that the simple denition we have chosen does correctly describe the combined eect of two forces acting at the same time on one object. Force is a vector quantity. Most important for us in our study of statics is that any object will sit still if only if the forces acting on it cancel, by which we mean that the vector sum of all of the forces acting on it is exactly a vector of magnitude zero. If an object is stationary when there are N distinct forces acting on it, we may write F1 + F2 + F3 + . . . + FN = 0; or
N

(2)

Fn = 0.
n=1

(3)

The rest of this section explains mathematical techniques for turning equations like the ones above into algebraic equations involving ordinary variables and numbers rather than vectors. 2.2.3 Representing vectors with Cartesian coordinates

The rst construct we will need is a way to specify a vector using numbers rather than just a picture of an arrow. We begin by choosing a Cartesian coordinate system consisting of three mutually perpendicular coordinate axes the x-, y -, and z -axes. To fully describe a vector (or arrow), we write a triple of real numbers representing the x, y , and z coordinates of the head of the arrow assuming that its tail is at the origin, (0, 0, 0). For example, to describe the forces acting on the rim of a car, we might choose the z -axis to be vertical, the x-axis to align with the direction the car is facing, and the y -axis to align with the direction of the axle, as shown in Figure 2. Now we have to decide which direction along a given axis corresponds to increasing the coordinate. Does x increase as we move to the right or to the left? For the most part, the choice is arbitrary. We just have to make sure to stick to it throughout the entire analysis. There is one feature, however, that will make our life easier later on. We will always make sure the coordinate system is right-handed. To determine whether a Cartesian coordinate system is right-handed, place the thumb of your right hand in the direction of increasing z with your palm at and ngers aligned with the direction of increasing x. Now, without moving your palm, curl your 12

x y
Figure 2: A Cartesian coordinate system. With the thumb of your right hand aligned with the z -axis and your ngers aligned with the x-axis, you can curl your ngers to align with the y -axis. ngers toward the y -axis. The direction they point should be dened as the direction of increasing y . In our car example, if we dene z as increasing upwards and x as increasing in the direction the car is facing (to the left), then y should be dened as increasing as you come away from the rim, outside the car, as shown in the gure. Given a Cartesian coordinate system with directions labeled x, y , and z , the separate movements along the x, y , and z directions required to get from the tail of some vector F to its head are called the components of F. Let these components be denoted Fx , Fy , and Fz . We can then specify the vector F by giving its three components in the following notation: F = (Fx , Fy , Fz ). In the example of the gravitational force on the rim, we have Fg = (0, 0, W ) (5) (4)

and we say that the z -component of Fg is W and the x- and y components are both 0. The utility of specifying vectors using Cartesian coordinates is that it makes addition of vectors extremely easy. Given two vectors a = (ax , ay , az ) and b = (bx , by , bz ), we have a + b = (ax + bx , ay + by , az + bz ). Its that simple. 13 (6)

2.2.4

Units of force

Note that the numerical value of W in the above example will depend on the units in which force is measured pounds, ounces, etc. For now, we will simply make up a unit of force and give it the name Newton in honor of our hero. We might say, for example, that the force required to hold up a liter of water at the surface of the earth is 9.8 Newtons, or 9.8N for short. (We will see later that the Newton is closely related to the kilogram, the meter, and the second.) 2.2.5 Adding several vector forces

In the case of the stationary ball hanging from a string, we can conclude that the force the string exerts on the ball is Fs = (0, 0, Wball ), where Wball is the weight of the ball, because we know that the string force has to cancel the gravitational force Fg = (0, 0, Wball ). The situation would not be static unless Fs + Fg were equal to the zero vector. (This assumes, of course, that there are no other forces acting on the ball.) We can, of course, combine more than two forces at once. As Figure 3 shows, the order in which we arrange the arrows makes no dierence. Vector addition follows the same rules as ordinary addition of numbers.

Figure 3: The order in which vectors are added does not matter. Each set of three arrows of the same style consists of the same three vectors added in a particular order. All the dierent orders give the same result, indicated by the dashed arrow with the large head.

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Figure 4 shows three strings attached to a ring. If the ring is known to be stationary (i.e., the situation is static), the forces that the strings exert on the ring must sum to zero. In order to answer questions about the magnitudes and directions of the forces, we would like to express this geometric relation as a set of algebraic equations we can work with.

F2

F1 F3

Figure 4: Left: A picture of a real system of three strings attached to a ring and held under tension. The hanging weights exert forces on the strings on the left and right. The peg at the top exerts a force on the vertical string. The forces pulling on the strings must lie in the directions of the strings themselves. (If the strings were sti beams, forces perpendicular to the beams could also exist.) Right: A free body diagram of the ring.

2.3

The magnitude of a vector

We close this section with one more denition. For the mathematics or physics purist, there is a deeper meaning of the term vector quantity that implies the correct addition rule. In analyzing a given physical system, we are free to choose the Cartesian x and z axes directions. (The y direction is then xed.) For a vector quantity, a dierent choice of axes changes the numbers used to specify it in a particular way. For example, a force specied by the vector (0, 0, W ) when z -axis is chosen to be vertical, might be represented by the vector (W, 0, 0) in a system where the x-axis is vertical. In contrast to vector quantities, there are some physical quantities that are independent of coordinate choices of axes. These are called scalars. Perhaps the simplest example is the mass of an object, which clearly does not depend on the choice of coordinate directions. Another example of a 15

scalar is the strength of a force, which youll recall is designated by the length of the vector representing that force. This quantity is often denoted with simple italics; the strength of a force F is F . We also say that the scalar F is the magnitude of the vector F. Using the Pythagorean theorem twice, you should convince yourself that F =
2 + F 2 + F 2. Fx y z

(7)

Suppose that F1 and F2 in Figure 4 are perpendicular to each other. Can you prove that F3 must be greater than F1 and also greater than F2 ? If so, you are probably getting the point. If not, talk this over with your TA or instructor.

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Newtons third law and force balance equations

Key points

Action-reaction pairs: Any force that is exerted on an object must arise because of the objects relation in space to some other object. Because the force exerted on object A and the force exerted on object B are both consequences of the same relation between objects A and B ,the two forces themselves are closely related: if at some instant in time object A exerts a force FAB on object B , then at that same instant object B must be exerting a force FBA on object A, and it must be true that FBA = FAB . (8) This is a mathematical expression of what is known as Newtons third law. You must understand exactly how it applies to all of the kinds of objects you care to contemplate. Force balance equations: For static systems, we can construct systems of equations relating various external forces acting in the system. Solutions of these equations then represent possible congurations of forces. The most common type of equation we encounter is one stating that a certain set of forces sum to zero: F1 + F2 + F3 + . . . = 0. (9)

To analyze sets of equations of this type, it is useful to separate out individual components of the vectors. A mathematical operation that accomplishes this is the dot product. F G = F x Gx + F y Gy + F z Gz ; = F G cos(). (10) (11)

The component of F in a given direction is given by F i, where i is a unit vector in the direction of interest.

Explanations Isaac Newton was the rst to formulate a coherent and useful theory of forces. One of his great achievements was to recognize that forces obey the rules of vector addition (though he did not use that term). Another was 17

the articulation of three laws that govern the motion of rigid objects and the eects that forces produce on them. Since these laws proved to have extraordinary predictive and explanatory power, we speak of them as laws of nature rather than just Newtons theories. As mentioned above, we now understand them to be consequences of even deeper principles concerning the nature of space and time, but that is a topic for another time and place.

3.1

Newtons Laws

Here are Newtons laws as he presented them in his masterwork, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (commonly referred to as The Principia), published in 1687. After a few pages concerning the denitions of terms like quantity of matter (now called mass), quantity of motion (now called momentum), and force (now called force) he states what he calls the Laws of Motion:2 Law 1: Every body perseveres in its state of rest, or uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed thereon. Law 2: The alteration of motion is ever proportional to the motive force impressed; and is made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impressed. Law 3: To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts. We will put o for a few weeks the discussion of the aspects of these laws that deal with motion and continue to focus on static systems. 3.1.1 Implications of Laws 1 and 2 for static systems

There are two important implications of Laws 1 and 2 for static systems. First, a system can be thought of as static if all its constituent parts are either completely stationary or moving together at a constant speed in a straight line. That is, a parked car is a static system, and so is a car parked
2 These translations from the Latin are from The Principia, translated by Andrew Motte (Prometheus Books, 1995).

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on a moving train, as long as the train is moving at constant speed in a straight line. Second, if the forces acting on a static object were to become unbalanced, resulting in a net force that is not zero, some sort of motion of the car will result. 3.1.2 Newtons Third Law

For now, we focus on the third law, as it is the one that will really help us identify all of the forces acting on any given object in static equilibrium. The meaning of the word action in Law 3 is is not entirely clear without the denitions that precede the statements of the Laws in The Principia. Roughly speaking, it means force. After stating the law, Newton oers this clarication: Paragraph directly following Law 3: Whatever draws or presses another is as much drawn or pressed by that other. If you press a stone with your nger, the nger is also pressed by the stone. If a horse draws a stone tied to a rope, the horse (if I may so say) will be equally drawn back towards the stone, for the distended rope, by the same endeavor to relax or unbend itself, will draw the horse as much toward the stone, as it does the stone towards the horse, and will obstruct the progress of one as much as it advances the progress of the other. . . . It is absolutely critical that you understand Law 3, as it describes a truly fundamental feature of the world and is used over and over again in the analysis of mechanical structures of all sorts. Here is another version: Law 3 in modern language: When one body exerts a force on another, the second exerts a force on the rst. The two forces are always equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. Let us use the notation Fij to refer to the force exerted by body i on body j . 3 A more succinct version of the third law is this: Law 3 in vector form:
3

F12 = F21

Note that the subscripts here have a very dierent meaning than the g we used before. In the present case, we are using the subscripts to designate which object is exerting the force and which is being subjected to that force. The subscript g was used to denote the type of force being exerted in a situation where there was no ambiguity about which object was the subject of the force.

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3.1.3

Force is generated by an interaction

Newtons third law governs the two forces that arise from a single interaction. The contact interaction between a nger and a stone, for example, produces two forces: one on the nger and one on the stone. Likewise, the gravitational interaction between the earth and the moon produces both a force on the moon and a force on the earth. It is because the forces arise from one and the same physical interaction between the two objects in question that they must have the same strength and opposite directions. Imagine that you press on a stone with two ngers at the same time. What would Law 3 say about the forces between you and the stone? What it really says is that the force each individual nger applies to the stone is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force the stone applies to that particular nger: Ff 1,s = Fs,f 1 and Ff 2,s = Fs,f 2 . By summing the two forces we can see that the third law also applies to the total force between you and the stone: Ff 1,s + Ff 2,s = [Fs,f 1 + Fs,f 2 ] We will see later, however, that the position where the force is applied to an object can be very important, so unless you are sure that the context does not require this information, you should analyze action-reaction pairs in terms of the individual interactions that produce them.

3.2

Describing physical systems with equations

In developing a physical description of a mechanical system, we rst need to identify the constituent objects of interest and the forces that act on them. Any portion of the full system can in principle be treated as a single object. In describing a car, for example, we might think of a wheel as a single object even though we know that it is made of many parts tire, rim, hubcap, bolts, etc. Our next goal is to be able to formulate a set of equations relating the forces in a given situation. We can then analyze the equations using familiar techniques of algebra to learn what we can about any unknown quantities in the equations. To do this, we have to be able to consider a situation like that shown on the left in Figure 5 and construct from it a picture like that shown on the right. We can then clearly identify the relevant relations between forces and then formulate equations relating them.

20

FB

FA FN Fg

Figure 5: A simple pulley. One end of a string is attached to a block and the other is pulled downward. The mass of the string is very small compared to the mass of the block. Left: A picture of a real system. Right: A diagram identifying the quantities relevant for answering questions about the strengths of the forces acting under various conditions. FA represents the downward force on the rope (applied by the hand); FB represents the upward force the string exerts on the block; FN represents the normal force the ground exerts on the block; and Fg represents the force the earth exerts on the block due to gravity. 3.2.1 Example: Analyzing a stationary pulley system

For example, we could ask What is the largest downward force that can be applied at point A without lifting the weight? Having already drawn an appropriate diagram, we now list the physical facts that we know about the system: Since the string is assumed to be massless, the tension along it is the same everywhere, which means the force exerted by the hand must have the same strength as the force exerted by string on the block. (Note the use of Newtons third law here. We assume, almost without thinking about it, that the force exerted by the block on the string is the same as the force exerted by the string on the block.) Since the block is assumed to be static, the vector sum of the forces that act on it must be zero. 21

 Because the oor is not sticky, the normal force it exerts on the block must be upward. It cannot hold the block down if the upward force from the string is strong enough to lift it. The hand is pulling the string straight down, not o at some angle. We may assume that the ground is level and the string segments are vertical, so there are no horizontal forces that need to be analyzed. These physical facts can now be translated into the language of mathematical equations: |FA | = |FB |; > 0; FN z (12) (13) (14) (15)

FB + FN + Fg = 0;

, FA = FA z or = FB k ; FA k + Fg k = 0; + FN k FB k FN > 0;

(16) (17) (18)

where in the second set of equations we have explicitly exhibited the assumption that the x and y components of all forces are zero. Any solution of these equations is a possible static conguration of the system. The question we have posed for ourselves is now stated in mathematical terms as What is the largest value of FA for which all of the above equations can be simultaneously satised? We have achieved our goal of translating a physical question into a math problem. Finding the answer may or may not be easy, but we have made a great leap by formulating the problem in mathematically precise terms. This will be a recurring theme in the course. Almost all of the diculty involved in solving physics problems will arise in the translation of physical questions into math problems. Once we have the math problem in front of us, we can haul out whatever machinery is necessary to solve it, from pencil and paper to sophisticated software packages like Matlab. If you can write down correct and complete sets of equations relevant to the physical situations presented to you this semester, you will surely do well in this course. Solving them will turn out to be much easier than setting them up. 22

3.3

Force diagrams Internal and external forces

Now lets think more carefully about the physics involved in passing from a picture of a real system to a useful idealized diagram. In cataloging the forces that act on any given object, we rst must distinguish between internal forces and external forces. The distinction here is not a fundamental one. It depends completely on what part of the world we take to be the object of interest. External forces are the forces on the object that are generated by an interaction with some part of the world that is not part of the object. Internal forces are the forces from interactions between one part of the object and another part of the same object. In the example of the wheel, the force the road exerts on the tire is an external force because the road is not part of the wheel. The force of the tire on the rim is an internal force because both the tire and the rim are parts of the wheel we have taken as the object of interest. (If our object of interest were the rim only, the force of the tire on the rim would be an external force.) The reason for making a distinction between internal and external forces is this: If we want to know the net force on an entire object, we only have to add up the external forces. Newtons third law guarantees that the internal forces will cancel. That is, if we list all of the forces acting on a compound system like the wheel, we have to include all the forces acting on the rim and all the forces acting on the tire, but the third law tells us that the sum of the force of the rim on the tire and the force of the tire on the rim is zero. All internal forces will come in action-reaction pairs that cancel. In contemplating the behavior of a particular object, or a particular part of a mechanical system, it is essential to identify rst all of the external forces acting on that object. In the example of the wheel, the external forces would be the contact force of the road on the tire, the gravitational force on the entire wheel (which comes from its interaction with the earth), and the contact force the axle exerts on the rim. (Technically, there is also a buoyant force due to the atmosphere around the wheel, but that is very small compared to the others.)

3.4
3.4.1

Some useful math

Unit vectors and components of vector equations

Finally, we consider some mathematical constructs that are helpful in working with vector equations. In order to work eciently with the external 23

force vectors once we have identied them, it is useful to dene a few special vectors along with a notation for them. Any vector of length 1 is called a unit vector, and we denote the three unit vectors (1, 0, 0), (0, 1, 0), and , respectively. We can therefore write (0, 0, 1) by the symbols i, j, and k . F = Fx i + Fy j + Fz k (19)

are dened with respect to a particular choice of axes. Note that i, j, and k The direction of k is not necessarily up. It simply designates that direction in space that has been chosen to be the z -axis. Now suppose we have a vector equation such as A + B = C. (20)

By expressing all of the vector components with respect to a given set of Cartesian coordinates, we can write this as three separate equations for the components: Ax + Bx = C x ; Ay + By = C y ; Az + Bz = C z . That is, if the vector equation holds, there are three equations for the components that must hold separately. 3.4.2 The dot product (21)

It is useful to dene a mathematical operation that picks out a particular component of a vector. We dene the dot product of two vectors such that = Fz . Thus, for example, the rst F i = Fx , F j = Fy , and F k Equation (21) can be written: A + B i = C i. (22)

Notice that A i is a scalar quantity. It gives the size of the component of A along the i direction. More generally, the dot product between any two vectors can be dened as S R Sx Rx + Sy Ry + Sz Rz . 24 (23)

You should make sure you see that the example above of F i is a special case of this formula. (Recall that i (1, 0, 0).) Though it may not be immediately obvious, it is also true that S R S R cos , (24)

where is the (lesser) angle between S and R. Another useful relation is that the dot product of a vector with itself gives the square of the magnitude of the vector: 2 2 2 S S = Sx + Sy + Sz = S2. (25) In this case = 0, so cos = 1. The dot product obeys all of the ordinary rules of multiplication. For example, (S + R) T = S T + R T. (26) To gain some condence in the dot product and/or refresh your memory of trigonometry, consider the triangle formed by vectors A, B, and C, where A + B = C. By calculating (C A) (C A), show that you recover the formula B 2 = C 2 + A2 2AC cos , where is the angle between C and A.

A C

Figure 6: A triangle to use for a dot product exercise.

3.4.3

Counting equations and unknowns

You will often encounter situations in which it is not immediately clear whether a particular force is known or not. You have partial information about a static conguration, but you are not sure whether that information is enough to allow you to determine all of the forces in the system uniquely. The mathematical situation is analogous to having a bunch of equations for a bunch of unknowns and wanting to know whether the equations have a unique solution. In the math case, we know that if the equations are linear, the solution exists and is unique if the number of equations is the same as the number of unknowns. The same idea works for force balance. 25

If we write all the force balance equations in component form, there are three unknowns for every action-reaction pair of forces. And every vector equation relating those forces gives us three ordinary algebraic equations. So in principle, if we have n (vector) forces in a static system, we can solve for all the forces if and only if we have n linearly independent vector equations relating them. In the case of Figure 4, for example, we are given the directions of all three forces and told that the disk is static. How many of the magnitudes do we have to know in order to determine all of the forces uniquely? Just one. If we choose coordinate axes such that the k is perpendicular to the plane of the disk, then all the z -components of the forces vanish. The force balance equation F1 + F2 + F3 = 0 then gives two nontrivial equations: one for the x-components and one for the y -components. Thus we can solve for two unknowns, which in this case would be the two unspecied force magnitudes. If you are trying to nd the strength of a component of a certain force and discover that you have more unknowns than equations, you have to go back over the physics of the situation until you nd a good reason for writing an additional equation relating the unknown quantities.

3.5

Strategy for analyzing static systems

In analyzing force balance in a static system, always carry out the following steps (in order!): 1. Draw a diagram indicating all of the relevant force vectors. 2. Make a list of all of the physical facts you know about the system and write a mathematical equation expressing each one. 3. Count the unknowns and equations. If there are enough equations to determine a solution, solve the resulting math problem to determine the quantities of interest. Step 1 is a technique that is known to be tremendously helpful. All physicists and engineers agree that it is the best way to start. The truly crucial step, however, is step 2. That is where your knowledge of physics is used to transform the physical question into a purely mathematical one. If step 2 is done correctly, then step 3 will follow fairly easily, even if the algebra is sometimes a bit tedious.

26

The concept of torque

Key points

The external forces acting on an object create torques, which may cause the object to rotate even if the forces themselves sum to zero. The torque associated with a given force must be dened with respect to a specied reference point (or origin). For a force F applied at a point r, the torque may be determined in several equivalent ways: by direct evaluation of the cross product = r F; by using the formula = rF sin for the magnitude and the right-hand rule to get the direction of . The latter method can be carried out most easily by forming the right triangle shown in Figure 7 and taking F times the moment arm s.

s F r

Figure 7: A useful diagram for calculating the torque due to a force of strength F applied at a distance r from the origin.

Explanations We have seen that for any object in a static system, the sum of all the forces acting on the object must equal the zero vector. It is easy to envision situations, however, where the forces sum to zero but the system will not remain static. Consider a stationary disk to which two forces are applied, as shown in Figure 8. The vector sum of the forces is zero, but the disk will not remain in static equilibrium. The problem is that balancing the forces is not sucient for stopping the disk from rotating, even though it is sucient 27

to prevent the disk from translating (moving to the left or right, or up or down).

[b]

Figure 8: A disk that will move even though it is experiencing no net force. The motion will consist of rotation of the disk, with no translation.

4.1

What is this thing called torque?

The concept of force and its mathematical representation as a vector helped us to understand static systems in which there was a possibility of translational motion. We now introduce a new concept, called torque, that is necessary for analyzing static systems in which rotational motion may also be an issue. Combinations of translations and rotations cover all possible types of motion, so once we understand torque balance, we will have a complete description of static systems. (In engineering circles, what physicists call a torque is often called a moment.) Roughly speaking, torque is a measure of how strongly an object is being twisted, in the same sense that force is a measure of how strongly it is being pushed or pulled. When you try to unscrew the lid of a jar, you dont apply any net force to it. There is no point in pushing or pulling the lid. What you have to do is make it rotate, not move over. You have to apply a torque to it. If the torque you apply is strong enough to overcome the torque supplied by friction, then the lid will begin to rotate and eventually come o. If the torque you apply is not suciently strong, a situation of static equilibrium will arise in which the torque your ngers apply to the lid is balanced by the torque the bottle applies through friction. (Note that you ultimately supply the balancing torque yourself by holding the jar with your other hand to keep it from turning.) Every force that acts on an object produces torque. Unlike the force, however, which has a completely unambiguous strength, the strength of the

28

torque depends on the choice of a reference point for its measurement. We will always speak of the torque about a particular point, with the point being chosen at our convenience. As far as the physics is concerned, the choice of the reference point is arbitrary. But a judicious choice can often simplify the mathematical analysis substantially. Thus we may speak of the torque on the jar lid about its center, or the torque on a door about a point on one of its hinges. It may not be obvious to you why the following denitions make sense, but they correspond to quantities that obey mathematical rules in a way that you will eventually appreciate. For now, just take them as denitions to be learned.

4.2

The direction of the torque vector

It turns out that torque, like force, is a vector quantity. Well begin with the denition of the direction of the torque vector, then deal with the question of its magnitude. Physically, the direction of the torque vector species the axis about which the torque promotes rotation. Lets rst discuss the special case of Figure 8. If the two forces shown are really the only forces acting on the disk, it will begin to rotate in the clockwise direction about an axis passing through the center of the disk while the center of the disk stays in the same place. (In general, guring out which point sits still can be complicated, but for now we assume the mass of disk is symmetrically distributed about its center and trust our intuition.) We say that there is an unbalanced clockwise torque acting on the disk about the rotation axis. But the term clockwise is not precise enough! Suppose you were looking at the disk from the back (from behind the page instead of in front of it). Then the torque would appear to be counterclockwise. To carefully specify the torque, we have to indicate which direction to look from as well as whether the tendency to rotate will be clockwise or counterclockwise. Physicists and engineers have agreed to do this using a right-hand rule, similar in spirit to the convention for labeling Cartesian coordinate axes. The right-hand rule for torque: Hold your right in front of your face with the thumb pointing at you and the ngers curled. Your ngers indicate a direction of rotation that is counterclockwise. We dene the direction of your thumb as being the direction of the torque vector, and we dene a positive torque to be one that promotes rotation in the direction indicated by your ngers.
Direction of rotation

Torque vector (Out of the page.)

29

In Figure 8, the direction of the torque vector is into the page, since that is the direction your right thumb would have to point in order for your ngers to curl in the direction the disk would rotate. Make sure you understand this! It might help to go over it with a friend. Stand face to face and hold a disk between you, then argue about whether the disk is rotating clockwise or counterclockwise. Resolve the argument by insisting that the direction of the torque vector is determined by the right-hand rule. If you both hold your right hand with your ngers curled to show which way the disk will rotate when given forces are applied, and you dene clockwise and counterclockwise to refer to what the rotation looks like when you position yourself so your thumb is pointing at you (rather than away from you), then you will agree and it doesnt matter whose right hand is used. To check to see whether you understand how to nd the direction of the torque vector, consider the following situation. Instead of forces being applied to the disk as shown in Figure 8, imagine the two forces to be applied at the top and bottom of the disk with the force at the top directed into the page and the force at the bottom directed out of the page (as if someone were pushing from behind the page). These forces would initiate rotation of the disk about a horizontal axis in the plane of the page. (Picture the rotation of a coin being ipped.) Question: Which direction is the torque vector produced by these forces? Work it out for yourself before you look at the answer in the footnote.4

4.3

The magnitude of the torque vector

We now return to the question of the strength of the torque; i.e., the magnitude of the torque vector. It turns out that this can be computed if the forces producing it are known and we know where those forces are being applied to the object. To dene the magnitude of the torque, we must rst specify a reference point as the origin of our coordinate system. To every point on any object, there then corresponds a position vector r specifying its location in space with respect to the origin. For example, the points on the surface of a sphere of radius r centered on the origin correspond to all of the position vectors that have the same magnitude r. When a force F is applied to an object at position r, a torque is created about the origin. Now if the force acts directly along r, it will not promote any rotation about the origin. That is, if you want to get the object to
4

Answer: The torque vector points to the left.

30

rotate about a certain point, it doesnt help to push directly toward that point or pull directly away from it. What does help is to push or pull in a direction perpendicular to the vector r; i.e., perpendicular to the line passing through the origin and the point of contact where the force is applied. It is only the component of F perpendicular to r that generates a torque about the origin. This component has a magnitude F sin , where is the (lesser) angle between r and F. is always less than (less than 180 ), so sin is always positive. The magnitude of the torque due to a force F applied at position r is dened to be r F sin . The direction of is dened to be perpendicular to both r and F, pointing in the direction the right thumb goes when the right-hand ngers are arranged to curl from r to F. This is consistent with the discussion above of Figure 8, where the origin is taken to be the center of the disk.

4.4

Computing the torque using the cross product

This denition of the torque vector associated with a given force applied at a given position corresponds to a mathematical operation called the vector product or cross product, usually denoted with the symbol . The relation between the vectors , r, and F is written as = r F, (27)

which is read equals r cross F. In plain English: the cross product of two vectors yields a third vector that is perpendicular to the rst two and has a magnitude equal to the product of the magnitudes of the rst two times the sine of the angle between them. Does this denition produce a unique answer? You might worry that there could be more than one direction perpendicular to the rst two vectors. There are always at least two, of course, which are exact opposites, but this ambiguity is resolved by the right-hand rule. The only way there can be more than two is if the rst two vectors have exactly the same or exactly opposite directions. But in either of these cases we have sin = 0, so the cross product is the zero vector and it makes no dierence what direction we assign to it. It turns out that the cross product can also be written in terms of the Cartesian components of the vectors involved, though the general formulas

31

are not entirely trivial to derive: x = r y F z r z F y ;

y = r z F x r x F z ;

(28)

z = r x F y r y F x .

Notice that the second equation can be obtained from the rst by changing x to y , y to z , and z to x everywhere. The third can be obtained from the second by doing this again. So all you really have to remember is the rst one. Note also that the minus sign makes it very important to keep straight which vector is which on the right side of the equation. Because of the sign dierence between ry Fz rz Fy and Fy rz Fz ry , we see that r F = F r. To be consistent with our use of the right-hand rule to dene coordinate axes and torques, we must dene the torque as specied in Equation (27). In a right-handed coordinate system with unit vectors i, j, and k along the x-, y -, and z -axes, respectively, we have i j = = j k k i = ; k i; j.

(29)

The order of vectors on the left side of these equations matters! Some mathematical properties of the cross product can be found in the Appendix E of CLRC. For our present purposes, the most important one is the distributive property over addition: a (b + c) = a b + a c. (30)

4.5

A nontrivial example of the computation of torques

To illustrate the mathematical denition of torque and see that it matches your physical intuition about twisting forces, consider again the disk in Figure 9(a). The gure shows three forces, all having a strength of one Newton, and we will assume the disk has a radius of one meter. Lets calculate the torque due to each of the individual forces. The rst thing we have to do is choose an origin about which the torques will be measured. The natural choice in this case is the center of the disk. It will also help to choose the x, y , and z directions of our coordinate system. This choice is arbitrary (except that it has to be a right-handed Cartesian 32

(a)

1 2 3

(b)

y x 3

(c)

1 3 2

Figure 9: A disk subject to 3 forces. The arrows with open heads indicate the forces, with the arrow tip indicating where on the disk the force is applied. In (c), the arrows with solid heads indicate the position vectors of the point of application of the forces with respect to center of the disk. system). Since all the forces and positions where they are applied lie in a single plane, the math will be simpler if we choose two axes in that plane and the third perpendicular to the plane. Figure 9(b) shows such a choice. The circle with a dot in the middle indicates an arrow pointing out of the plane of the page (towards you). Next, we exhibit the position vectors explicitly, as shown in Figure 9(c). We can get the directions of the torques fairly easily now. To nd the direction of 1 , place the ngers of your right hand along r1 in such a way that you can curl them toward the direction of F1 . (Dont be fooled by the drawing here! The direction of F1 is to the right, even though the line segment representing the vector stretches to the left of the point r.) With your hand positioned this way, your thumb points into the page, which is the direction of 1 . Lets check this using the cross product denition of torque. We have 33

r1 = (0, 1, 0)m and F1 = (1, 0, 0)N. Thus we get 1 = r1 F1 ; (31)

= (r1y F1z r1z F1y ,

= (0, 0, 1)N m;

r1z F1x r1x F1z , r1x F1y r1y F1x );

which indicates a torque of magnitude one Newton-meter in the k direction. What about 2 ? Before calculating the cross product, think about what you expect the answer to be. Will the force F2 generate a twisting action on the disk? (If you think it will, which direction will the twist be clockwise or counterclockwise?) The calculation is straightforward. We have r2 = (cos , sin , 0)m and F2 = ( cos , sin , 0)N. Noting that all the z -components of both r2 and F2 are 0, we get 2 = r2 F2 ; (32)

= (0, 0, 0)N m.

= (0, 0, cos ( sin ) sin ( cos ))N m;

= (0, 0, r2x F2y r2y F2x );

F2 generates no torque about the origin, as you may have expected. Finally, we compute 3 . Again, all the z -components of both r3 and F3 are 0, so the x and y components of 3 will vanish; i.e., 3 must be directed along the z -axis. We have r2 = (1/2)(cos , sin , 0)m and F2 = (1, 0, 0)N. Note the point at which the force is applied is closer to the origin; r is half a meter rather than one meter as in the other cases. Again the z -components of the rs and and Fs vanish, so the only nonzero component of the torque is its z -component. We get 3 = r3 F3 ; (33)

= (0, 0, r3x F3y r3y F3x ); 1 = (0, 0, 0 sin ) 1) N m. 2

F3 does generate a torque about the origin. The direction of 3 is the positive k direction (out of the plane of the page), indicating that F3 promotes 34

rotation in the counterclockwise direction as we look down the z -axis. The magnitude 3 is equal to rF sin , as promised above. The magnitude of 3 is reduced from 1 N m by two factors. First, it is smaller because r is smaller. In general, the closer to the origin a force is applied, the smaller the torque about the origin will be. Second, it is smaller because the force is not perpendicular to the position vector. It is only the component of F3 that is perpendicular to r3 that generates a torque. This corresponds nicely to your experience in opening doors, for example. If you push on the door near the hinges, rather than at the doorknob, you need a bigger force to get the door to rotate about its hinges. Also, if you were to push the doorknob toward the hinges rather than at a right angle to the plane of the door, you wouldnt generate any torque about the hinges, and most people, having mastered the basics of how to apply larger torques with less force, would wonder what in the world you are doing.

35

Torque balance in static systems

Key points

In static systems both the net force and the net torque must be zero. To compute the net torque, we may choose any convenient point as an origin and take the vector sum of the torques about that point due to external forces. If we know that an object is in static equilibrium, then we know that the following two vector equations must hold: Fn = 0
n

(34) (35)

n = 0,
n

where the sums are taken over all of the external forces applied to the object and the torques are all referred to the same origin. Explanations We have already seen what it means for forces to balance. The situation with torques is entirely analogous. We just add up all the torques on each object as vectors. In order for the system to be static, the torques on any given object must sum to zero. There does appear to be a problem, though. Since the torque produced by a given force depends on the choice of origin, how do we pick the correct origin when checking for torque balance? The answer is both elegant and surprising: it doesnt matter which point we choose as the origin. For a static system, the torque is zero no matter which point is chosen as the origin.. (The choice of origin is not arbitrary for a system that is not static. Well have much more to say about dynamic systems later.)

5.1

In static systems, the choice of origin is arbitrary

It is not hard to prove using simple algebra that the choice of origin has no eect on the analysis of torque balance in a static system. Suppose we have several forces F1 , F2 , . . . , Fn applied to an object at positions r1 , r2 , . . . , rn , where the position vectors refer to some particular choice of origin. Then

36

we have for the net torque on the object about that origin:
n

=
i=1

ri Fi .

(36)

Now suppose we decided to use a dierent point as the origin, and lets say the new origin lies at position R with respect to the old origin. Then in the new coordinates, the point of application of Fi will be at the position r = r R. (See Figure 10.) So with respect to the new origin we have
n

=
i=1 n

ri Fi (ri R) Fi
n

(37) (38) R Fi (39) (40)

=
i=1 n

=
i=1

ri Fi
n

i=1

= R

Fi ,
i=1

where we have used the distributive property of the cross product to get the third line, then used it again to get the second term on the fourth line. But if the object is static, then we know the sum of the forces on it must be zero. Thus the second term in the last equation vanishes and we have shown that = as long as there is no net force. So for analyzing static systems, it makes no dierence which point we choose as a reference for measuring the torques on an object, as long as we refer all the position vectors to the same origin. If we have several objects in our system, we can use a dierent origin for each of the dierent objects.

5.2

Example of torque balance analysis

To illustrate the way in which torque balance for enters the analysis of static systems, we consider rst a single rigid beam. If all of the points of contact of the forces are given, then solving for the forces is a simple linear problem. We just write down the force balance and torque balance equations in component form and we have a set of linear equations for the components of the forces.

37

O R

r P

Figure 10: The relation between the position vectors referred to two dierent origins. Point P corresponds to the vector r in the coordinate system with its origin at O, and to r in the coordinate system with its origin at O . R is the displacement of O from O. 5.2.1 Start with a diagram

The situation can be a little trickier, however, if we are given dierent information. Suppose that we are told that the beam is subject to two forces as shown in Figure 11. (There is no gravity in the world of this beam.) We are then asked to gure out how to apply a single additional force that will balance the two shown so that the beam will remain static.
1N 2.5 m 45
O

F1

0.75 m 90 O 2m F2 1N 2m

Figure 11: A beam that remains static because the forces and torques on it are balanced. One of the forces is not pictured. The problem is to gure out what it is and where it is applied.

5.2.2

Count the unknowns and equations

It may not be entirely clear that it is possible to balance the force and torque simultaneously, so it behooves us to count the number of unknowns we have

38

to determine and the number of equations they have to satisfy. We have two unknown vector quantities, the desired force F and the position r of its application. We also have two vector equations to satisfy, one expressing force balance and the other expressing torque balance. So it appears that there should be a solution. We have to be careful, though, because the torque equation involves products of the unknowns in the form of r F it is not a linear equation. Lets plow ahead and see what happens. 5.2.3 Choose an origin and Cartesian axes

First, we are free to choose whatever origin we like for computing the torques. A good choice here might be the point where F2 is applied to the beam, since that will guarantee that 2 is zero, making the torque balance equation simpler. Next, we choose our axes. Since all of the action lies in the plane of the page, we take the z -axis to point out of the page. To make the math as simple as possible, we can choose one of the axes to align with one of the given forces. A natural choice in this case might be that j (the y direction), aligns with F2 , so i points to the right. 5.2.4 Write the force and torque balance equations

Now we express the forces and points of application in terms of their com ponents: F1 = (F1 / 2, F1 / 2, 0) N; F2 = (0, F2 , 0)N; r1 = (0.5, 1, 0); and r2 = (0, 0, 0). Computing the torques using the cross product, we have 1 = (0, 0, 0.5F1 / 2)N m and 2 = (0, 0, 0). Force balance requires F3 = F1 F2 = (F1 / 2, F2 F1 / 2, 0) N. Torque balance requires 3 = 1 2 (43) (44) (41) (42)

= (0, 0, 0.5F1 / 2) N m.

39

5.2.5

Solve for the desired quantity

We now have to nd r3 such that 3 = r3 F3 . Will the solution be unique? Clearly not, because we can always add to r3 any vector parallel to F3 without changing the torque generated by F3 . To nd this family of solutions, note rst that r3z must be zero, which guarantees 3x = 3y = 0. The only remaining equation is the z -component of torque balance, which reads 3z = r3x F3y r3y F3x or 0.5F1 F1 F1 + r3y . = r3x F2 2 2 2 From this we derive the relation r3y = 0.5 F2 1 r3x , 2 F1 (47) (45) (46)

which is the equation of a line with intercept 0.5 and slope 1 2F2 /F1 . To achieve static equilibrium, the force F3 can be applied anywhere along this line. 5.2.6 Check you answer using limiting cases

Having obtained an answer to the question posed, it is now absolutely essential that we think about it to see whether it makes sense and what general insights we can obtain from it. One type of analysis that is often useful is to look at limiting cases. Consider for example the situation if F2 is vanishingly small. In that case we would be trying to balance the single force F1 . To do so, we would expect to have to apply an equal and opposite force, and to avoid creating a net torque we would expect that force to be applied along the line dened by F1 as it is pictured in the gure. Does our mathematics agree with this simple analysis? If we set F2 = 0 in Equation (42), we nd F3 = (F1 / 2, F1 / 2, 0) N, (48) which is indeed a force equal and opposite to F1 . If we set F2 = 0 in Equation (47), we nd r3y = 0.5 + r3x , (49) which is, as expected, the equation dening the line in the direction of F1 and containing the point at which F1 is applied. You should analyze for yourself the case where F1 = 0. You will need to use Equation (46) rather 40

than (47) to avoid division by zero. Before you do the math, though, look at the picture and formulate an idea of what to expect. The general lesson here is that in order for static equilibrium to obtain in a system subjected to two forces, the forces must be equal and opposite and applied at points a long a single line that is parallel to the force vectors.

41

Torques due to gravity and contact forces

Key points

To properly account for the torque exerted on an object due to its gravitational interaction with the earth, we take the overall gravitational force Fg to be applied at the center of mass of the object. The center of mass can be computed as a sum over all points in the object, with the position of each point weighted by the density at that point: rcm 1 M r dr.
V

(50)

When the centers of mass of dierent pieces of the object are known, the center of mass of the composite object is given by a weighted sum over the dierent pieces: N (Mi rcmi ) . (51) rcm = i=1N i=1 Mi The torque on the object due to gravity (with respect to whatever origin was chosen to dene the position of center of mass) is g = rcm Fg . (52)

This torque enters the equations for torque balance in exactly the same way as any other torque. Explanations So far we have discussed torque only in situations involving contact forces applied at well dened positions. Gravitational forces do not t this mold. The gravitational force on an object is distributed over the entire volume occupied by the object. Each little piece of the object, down to the subatomic scale, contributes its weight to the total Fg . To calculate the torque associated with the gravitational force requires summing over all the tiny mass elements that make up the object. Letting V represent the volume occupied by the object, we can write Fg = g = w dr and
V V

(53) (54)

(r w) dr.

42

Here w is the weight per unit volume of the object at each point in space and the symbol dr means drx dry drz . w can vary from point to point either because the object is more dense in some places than others, because gravity is stronger in some places than others, or because the direction of gravity is dierent in some places than others. (The latter two eects are important only if the object is really big. Taking the continent of Africa as an object, for example, we see that gravity, which points toward the center of the earth, has a signicantly dierent direction in Tunisia than it does in Botswana.)

6.1

Center of gravity and center of mass

For convenience, we dene a position rcg in space such that the torque due to gravity, computed using Equation (54) is given by the simple expression g = rcg Fg . This position is called the center of gravity of the object. In all of the situations we will encounter henceforth in this course, the variation of the gravitational interaction over volumes the size of the object will be negligible. In that case, we can write w as g, where is the mass density, which may vary from point to point, and g is a constant vector indicating the strength and direction of gravity. (Well have more to say about the concepts of mass and the vector g later.) By denition, the integral of the density over the volume of the whole object is just the mass of the object: V dr = M . (Recall that an integral is just a convenient way of denoting a sum of contributions from all the tiny pieces of the object.) We will also nd it useful, especially when we discuss the dynamics of rotating objects, to dene the center of mass of an object as the position 1 rcm r dr. (55) M V In a sense, the center of mass is the average position of all the mass in an object. In many cases, the center of mass is easy to guess. In general, for symmetric objects like uniform density disks, rectangles, cubes and such, the center of mass is at the center of the object. Keep in mind, though, that the center of mass does not actually have to lie within the object at all. The center of mass of a donut is in the middle of the hole, for example. The calculation of the center of mass can often be simplied by dividing the object of interest into dierent parts whose centers of mass can be computed easily. Given two constituent objects, if we know their masses and the positions of their centers of mass, the center of mass of the composite

43

object is given by M1 rcm1 + M1 rcm2 . (56) M1 + M 2 More generally, for a composite object consisting of N parts, we have rcm = rcm =
N i=1 (Mi rcmi ) . N i=1 Mi

(57)

Equation (55) is just the continuum version of this sum.

6.2

Torque due to gravity

Now lets return to the computation of the torque on an object due to gravity. Because the cross product has the distributive property over addition and because is a scalar, we can rewrite Equations (53) and (54) as Fg = g and g =
V

dr = M g
V

(58)

(r) dr g

(59) (60) (61)

= rcm Fg .

= M rcm g

This last line shows that in most applications of interest the torque due to gravity will be properly taken into account if we assume that the weight of the object is concentrated at the center of mass.

6.3

Example: A beam supported by columns

Consider a beam resting on two supports as shown in Figure 12. We assume the beam has a uniform density. Just for practice, lets begin our analysis by identifying all of the forces in this system. Each object (beam or column) is subject to a constant gravitational force, which we can model as acting at the center of mass of the object. Each column exerts a vertical contact force on the ground, and force balance applied to the entire beam-column system (together with Newtons third law) tells us that the net force on the ground must equal the weight of the whole system. Each column is also subject to a vertical contact force necessary for balancing the weight of the 44

x1

x2

W F 1

F2

Figure 12: A beam supported by two columns. The arrows near the beam show the forces acting on the beam. The weight is marked as acting at the center of mass of the beam (not the whole beam-column system) and represents only the weight of the beam (not the whole system). The arrows below show the forces the columns exert on the ground. beam, otherwise the beam would not be static. Is the contact force at the top of a column equal in magnitude to the force that column exerts on the ground? Think about this before looking at the footnote.5 6.3.1 Treating the beam as the system of interest

Focusing now on the beam alone, lets see if we can calculate the contact forces at the two columns. As is often useful, we choose our origin at the center of mass of the object of interest. This makes the torque due to gravity zero because it is applied at position r = (0, 0, 0) with respect to the center of mass. The two physical facts we know are: (1) the net external force on the beam must be zero; and (2) the net external torque on the beam must be zero. We now have to express these in the form of mathematical equations.
No. The contact force on the ground is larger because it must balance the weight of the column itself in addition to the compression force transmitted from the top of the column.
5

45

To be (obsessively) thorough, we would write full vector equations for both quantities. But in this case, one sees that the forces are all in the z direction, since they come from gravity or contacts at surfaces perpendicular to the z -axis. Also, there is no need here to worry about the beam rotating about its long axis (the x-axis), so we only need the equation for the y -component of the torque. For the two contact forces, we then have two equations: F1 + F 2 W = 0 and (62) (63)

x1 F1 + x2 F2 = 0.

We have used x1 and x2 instead of r1 and r2 since we know the magnitude of the torque depends only on the component of r that is perpendicular to F. Note that x1 is negative while x2 is positive.. These equations are easily solved for F1 and F2 , yielding F1 = x2 W x2 x 1 and F2 = x1 W. x1 x 2 (64)

As usual, in addition to checking these answers to make sure they satisfy the force and torque balance requirements, you should check to see whether they make sense in limiting cases. For example, suppose column 1 is positioned directly under the center of mass of the beam. In that case, x1 is zero and it appears that there is no force on column 2 at all. Does this make sense? Yes, because if column 1 is right under the center of mass, then the beam will be balanced on it and we could remove column 2 completely without having the beam move. 6.3.2 What does a negative value of F mean?

What about if columns 1 and 2 are both on the same side of the center of mass? In that case F2 becomes negative. Does this make sense? Yes, because in that situation column 2 will have to pull down on the beam to keep it from tipping to the left, rather than push up on it. Notice that when x2 x1 is small compared to both x1 and x2 , both forces get very large (but in opposite directions). This corresponds to cases where the two columns are near each other but far from the center of mass of the beam. You can get a direct physical conrmation of the fact that large forces are needed in such a case by trying to hold a horizontal rod steady gripping it only near one end. You should conrm this by experimenting with a yardstick, tennis racket, baseball bat, or something similar. 46

Frictional forces and associated torques

Key points

Static friction is a force that prevents an object from sliding across a surface. The strength of this force is determined by the situation (i.e., the other forces at play) but can never exceed a certain fraction of the normal force between the surface and the object: Fstatic
f riction

Fnormal .

(65)

The coecient of static friction, , is a material property of the interface between the two materials in contact. does not not depend on the size or shape of the contact area. In the most general situation, in order to compute the torque due to static friction (or due to normal forces), we need to know exactly how the force is distributed over the contact area. In some cases, however, the relevant component of the frictional torque turns out to be independent of how the force is distributed. When the distribution of normal forces matters, the ambiguities are often resolved in limiting cases such as when an object is just about to tip over or just about to slip. Explanations Static frictional forces occur when one object is prevented from sliding across another. When a block rests on a ramp, for example, as shown in Figure 13, there is a frictional force directed along the ramp. The strength of this force must be just what is needed to balance the sum of the downward gravitational force exerted by the earth and the normal force exerted by the ramp. Note that the normal force has a horizontal component, so it is not possible for the normal force and gravity to cancel each other. The normal force and frictional force must somehow combine to cancel the gravitational force if the block is to remain stationary. The physics of friction is extremely subtle. Like the normal force, the strength of the frictional force adjusts itself to the situation. The strength of the normal force is as large as it needs to be in order to prevent the two contacting objects from passing through each other. Similarly, the static frictional force is as strong as it needs to be to hold the objects stationary with respect to each other. There is one crucial dierence, though: the static friction force cannot be arbitrarily strong. If the force required to prevent 47

Fg

Ff FN

Figure 13: A block resting on a ramp. sliding becomes too large, static friction will give way and the objects will slip past each other.

7.1

A simple approximate law for static friction

The largest possible value of the frictional force depends in very complicated ways on the nature of the two materials in contact. We summarize (approximately) the material properties with a simple formula: Fstatic
f riction

Fnormal ,

(66)

where is a constant that depends on which two materials are in contact. This formula says that the magnitude of the static friction force can never be greater than times the magnitude of the normal force. Roughly speaking, this means that the harder you push down on a block, the harder someone else will have to push horizontally to get it to slip.

48

7.2

Example: A block on a ramp

We can now study the block-ramp example in detail. Lets try to determine how steep the ramp can be while still holding the block in place. We know several things: (1) the forces must sum to zero; (2) the torques must sum to zero; (3) the frictional force cannot be larger than times the normal force; and (4) the directions of the forces are vertical, perpendicular to the ramp, and parallel to the ramp as indicated. These give us the following equations: FN + Ff + Fg = 0; N + f + g = 0; Ff FN ; FN = F N j; Ff = F f i; Fg = Fg (sin i + cos j). (67) (68) (69) (70) (71) (72)

To see whether static equilibrium is possible for a given value of , we have to determine whether there is a solution of the above equations for that value of theta. We assume that Fg , the weight of the block, is known. For the moment, well ignore the torque constraint of Equation (68) and just ask whether we can nd values of Ff and FN consistent with the other equations. Using Equations (70-72) to write the separate components of Equation (67), we obtain Ff = Fg sin ; and FN = Fg cos . (73)

Now we consider the implications of Equation (69). While it does not x the ratio Ff /FN , it does constrain it to be less than or equal to . Equation (73) tells us that Ff /FN = tan , so we conclude that the system of equations can be satised if and only if tan . Thus if we know , which is a material property we would have to measure independently, we could predict how much the ramp could be tipped before the block would start to slide. Alternatively, we could do an experiment to nd the angle s at which the block rst starts to slide and use tan s as a measurement of . A curious feature of our answer is that the maximum angle s does not depend on the weight or the shape of the block. That is, two blocks made of the same material will give the same s no matter how dierent they are 49

in size and shape, according to our calculation. Whether this is really true depends of course on whether our approximate model of how static friction works is a good one. In practice, it turns out to be quite good in the great majority of circumstances, though there are small deviations from the rule that continue to perplex research physicists and engineers.

7.3

Torque from a distributed force

If you are following along carefully, at this point you should be wondering what happened to the torque balance constraint. Since we did not check yet to see whether the it is satised, we cannot be sure the situation is really static. This turns out to be a little tricky, because we do not really know where the normal force is applied to the block. In fact, the normal force vector we have drawn is actually the sum of many forces distributed over the area of contact between the ramp and the block. Figure 14(a) shows two of the many dierent ways the normal force might be distributed. Both cases produce the same total force and the same torque. The actual conguration of forces depends on the microscopic details of the two surfaces in contact where the little bumps are and how hard or soft the materials are. Nevertheless, we can reason our way to a useful conclusion.
(a)

FN

(b)
Fg

(c)

Fg FN + Ff FN + Ff

Figure 14: A block resting on a ramp. (a) Two ways in which the normal forces may be distributed. (b) When the ramp is steep enough that the CM of the block lies outside the two vertical lines, the torque cannot be balanced and the block will begin to tip over. (c) When the CM is inside the two lines, the torque can be balanced as shown.

50

Notice now that dierent ways of distributing the same normal force can produce dierent torques. For example, if all of the force is concentrated at one end of the contact area, as shown in Figure 14(b), the torque about the center of mass will be as large as possible (where the positive direction of the torque is taken to point out of the page). The distribution of forces will always adjust so as to balance the torque if possible. If the torque required for balance is larger than that provided in the conguration shown in Figure 14(b), it is impossible to satisfy force balance and torque balance simultaneously. In that case, something has to give. The block will begin to tip over. Note that when the block begins to rotate about its lower corner, there is no ambiguity in the force distribution anymore since the surface of contact is now only at the corner.

7.4

Criterion for tipping over

In the example of the block on the ramp and any other case where the only forces involved are gravity, normal forces, and static friction, there is a simple way to tell whether the torque can be balanced. All we have to do draw vertical lines through the two endpoints of the surface of contact and determine whether the center of mass of the object lies between these lines. Figure 14(c) shows a case where this condition is not met. Taking the CM of the block as a reference point, the torque due to gravity is zero. But because force balance requires that the total contact force (normal plus frictional) be a vertical vector, there is no way to avoid an unbalanced torque. In Figure 14(b), on the other hand, there is at least one obvious way of getting the torque to balance: just assume that the contact force is concentrated directly beneath the CM, so the the total contact force vector points directly at the CM.

7.5

A nontrivial example: Pulling a chair

Because the physics and logic of the conditions for slipping or tipping are a bit subtle, it is worth considering another example in detail. Lets imagine a two-dimensional chair standing on a carpet and being pulled by a horizontal string attached to its back. Wed like to know how strong the tension in the string has to be to make the chair move. We will not solve this problem in detail here. We will only point out some essential features needed. You will explore this system in detail in the lab and homework.

51

7.5.1

Draw a diagram and count unknowns and equations

First things rst: we should make a picture of the forces acting on the various parts of the chair a free body diagram. Figure 15 shows all the forces. The weight Fg acts at the center of mass, which is roughly at the

Fp W

f2 N1 f1 N2

Figure 15: A chair being pulled by a string. The center of mass of the chair does not happen to lie within the chair, but we still indicate the weight as acting at the center of mass. point pictured. The pulling force of interest is shown as Fp . There are contact forces at the points where the legs touch the ground. Each of these has a normal component Ni (perpendicular to the area of surface of contact) and a tangential component fi (parallel to the surface). The tangential components are provided by the frictional forces between the legs and the carpet. Next, we should think a bit about what we expect the chair to do. If Fp is very small, we would expect a static equilibrium to be established the chair will not move. We will have three equations for the forces: one for balancing the vertical component of force on the chair; one for balancing the horizontal component; and one for balancing the y -component of torque. But we have four unknowns: two components for each of the contact forces. This means there will not be a unique solution for the static equilibrium forces. If you encounter a stationary chair in this conguration, you would need additional information about how it got there in order to calculate all of the forces on it.

52

7.5.2

Identify the precise question of interest

But we are not necessarily interested in solving for all of the forces in an arbitrary static conguration of the chair. We just want to know how hard we have to pull to get the chair to move. To determine this, we imagine slowly increasing the force and try to picture what the forces are just before the chair moves. Two things could happen. First, the chair might start to rotate about the point where the front leg touches the ground. This will happen if the the normal force on the back leg required to keep it stationary becomes negative; that is, if a calculation of N1 suggests that it should be downward, which is something the oor cannot do, the back leg will lift up. Just before this happens, the normal force on the back leg is zero, which means the frictional force must also be zero. At this point, we have three unknowns: the normal and tangential forces on the front leg, and Fp itself. We can therefore use our three equations to solve for Fp . The trick was to realize that N1 = 0 is a special case in which f1 is not free to vary; it must also be zero. Thus by insisting that N1 be zero, we got an additional constraint for free. You will complete this problem for homework. The other way the chair could move is by sliding along the oor without tipping. This will happen if the static friction thresholds on both legs are exceeded while the normal forces remain positive. To see if and when this will happen, note that both legs must start sliding at the same time because the chair is rigid. This means that both legs must be at the static friction threshold just before sliding starts, which in turn means that f1 and f2 are exactly equal to s N1 and s N2 , respectively, and do not need to be determined independently. Once again, then, we have three unknowns: in this case Fp , N1 , and N2 . Finally, one has to check to see which type of motion is initiated rst as Fp is slowly increased. The answer depends on the height at which the string is attached to the back of the chair. Before you work on the homework problem, think about what to expect. If the string is attached at a large height, do you expect the chair to tip or to slide? What if the string is attached at a very low point? Solve for the quantity of interest . . . for homework

53

Static uids: pressure and buoyancy

Key points

The pressure in a static uid varies from point to point in such a way that the net external force on any parcel of the uid vanishes. If the uid is subject to uniform gravity, as is the case for uids in small containers near the surface of the earth, the pressure increases linearly with depth. The buoyant force on any object that is submerged or partially submerged in a uid is equal to the volume of the uid it displaces times the density of the uid, a fact known as Archimedes Principle. Explanations Read CLRC Chapter 15, Section 1-7. These do not rely in any signicant way on any portions of the book that are not covered in the above material.

54

Concepts, Terms, and Techniques to Know

Upon completion of the Statics portion of this course, you should know the meaning of the following terms and be able to determine their relevance for the analysis of any particular mechanical system: Gravitational force (Weight) Contact force Normal force Frictional force Buoyant force Stress Pressure, Tension, Compression Newtons third law (action-reaction) Internal and external forces Force balance Torque balance Center of mass Static system Archimedes principle You do not really understand these concepts unless you also understand the following mathematical constructs: Scalars Cartesian coordinate systems and the right-hand rule Vectors Vector addition, dot product, and cross product Memorizing the denitions and some examples of their application is not enough. You should be able to do the following tasks for a static mechanical system consisting of identiable distinct parts: 55

 Make an idealized mental model of a simple mechanical system a swing-set, say, or a tinker toy construction and identify all of the external forces acting on it. Draw a free-body diagram indicating all the forces that act on any given object in the system. Write force and torque balance equations for any given object in the system, both as vector equations and as equations for the individual components. Given some information about the forces in the system, tell whether the other forces can be determined or not. When enough information is available, calculate all of the unknown forces. In cases where static uids are involved, apply principle and Archimedes principle to determine the buoyant force on a oating or submerged object.

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