MECHANICS

 Mechanics is a branch of the physical sciences that is concerned with the state of
rest or motion of bodies that are subjected to the action of forces. In general, this
subject can be subdivided into three branches: rigid-body mechanics, deformable-
body mechanics, and fluid mechanics.
 Rigid-body mechanics is divided into two areas: statics and dynamics. Statics deals
with the equilibrium of bodies, that is, those that are either at rest or move with a
constant velocity; whereas dynamics is concerned with the accelerated motion of
bodies.

FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS
 Space is the geometric region occupied by bodies whose positions are described
by linear and angular measurements relative to a coordinate system. For three-
dimensional problems, three independent coordinates are needed.
 Mass is a measure of the inertia of a body, which is its resistance to a change of
velocity. Mass can also be thought of as the quantity of matter in a body. The mass of
a body affects the gravitational attraction force between it and other bodies.
 A rigid body can be considered as a combination of a large number of particles in
which all the particles remain at a fixed distance from one another, both before and
after applying a load. This model is important because the body’s shape does not
change when a load is applied, and so we do not have to consider the type of
material from which the body is made.
 A concentrated force represents the effect of a loading which is assumed to act at
a point on a body. We can represent a load by a concentrated force, provided the
area over which the load is applied is very small compared to the overall size of the
body.

NEWTON’S LAWS
 LAW 1: A particle remains at rest or continues to move with uniform velocity (in a
straight line with a constant speed) if there is no unbalanced force acting on it.
 LAW 2: The acceleration of a particle is proportional to the vector sum of forces
acting on it, and is in the direction of this vector sum.
 LAW 3: The forces of action and reaction between interacting bodies are equal in
magnitude, opposite in direction, and collinear (they lie on the same line).
 FORCE
SYTEMS
A. FORCE
• A force is a vector quantity, because its effect depends on the direction as well as
on the magnitude of the action. Thus, forces may be combined according to the
parallelogram law of vector addition.
A.1 INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EFFECTS
• Forces external to a body can be either applied forces or
reactive forces.
• The effects of P internal to the bracket are the
resulting internal forces and deformations distributed
throughout the material of the bracket.

A.2 PRINCIPLE OF TRANSMISSIBILITY

• It states that a force may be applied at any point
on its given line of action without altering the
resultant effects of the force external to the rigid
body on which it acts.
• the force P acting on the rigid plate may be
applied at A or at B or at any other point on its
line of action, and the net external effects of P
on the bracket will not change

ACTION AND REACTION

• According to Newton’s third law, the action of a force is always
accompanied by an equal and opposite reaction. It is essential to
distinguish between the action and the reaction in a pair of forces.
A.3 CONCURRENT FORCES
• Two or more forces are said to be concurrent at a point if
their lines of action intersect at that point. The forces F1
and F2 shown in the figure have a common point of
application and are concurrent at the point A.
Thus, they can be added using the parallelogram law
in their common plane to obtain their sum or resultant
R, as shown in the figure. The resultant lies in the same
plane as F1 and F2.
• Suppose the two concurrent forces lie in the same plane but are applied at
two different points as in the figure. By the principle
of transmissibility, we may move them along their
lines of action and complete their vector sum R at
the point of concurrency A, as shown in the figure.

A.4 VECTOR COMPONENTS

• In addition to combining forces to obtain their resultant, we often need to
replace a force by its vector components in directions which are convenient
for a given application. The vector sum of the components must equal the
original vector.
B. TWO-DIMENSIONAL FORCE SYSTEMS
B.1 RECTANGULAR COMPONENTS
• The most common two-dimensional resolution of
a force vector is into rectangular components. It
follows from the parallelogram rule that the
vector F may be written as
F = Fx + Fy
where Fx and Fy are vector components of F in the x and y directions.
• Each of the two vector components may be
written as a scalar times the appropriate unit
vector. In terms of the unit vectors i and j.

F = Fxi + Fyj
• The scalar components can be positive or negative, depending on the quadrant
into which F points.

Fx = F cos 0 ; Fy = F sin 0

F= Fx 2 + Fy2

Fy
0 = tan-1
Fx
Sample Problem:

1. Determine the x and y scalar components of

F1, F2, and F3 acting at point A of the bracket

Solution:
a. Solve for X and Y components of F1

b. Solve for X and Y components of F2

c. Solve angle α to solve for F3

d. Solve for X and Y components of F3