ME 105 - Engineering Statics

Lecture # 1
Introduction to Statics

Definition
Mechanics is a branch of the physical sciences
that is concerned with the state of rest or
motion of bodies subjected to the action of
forces.
Engineering mechanics is divided into two areas
of study, namely, statics and dynamics.
Statics is the branch of mechanics which deals
with equilibrium of bodies at rest
Dynamics is that branch of mechanics which
deals with the motion of bodies under the action
of forces.

Dynamics
Dynamics has two distinct parts:
kinematics, which is the study of
motion without reference to the forces
which cause motion, and
kinetics, which relates the action of
forces on bodies to their resulting
motions.

History of Statics
Archimedes
(287-212B.C.)
on
the
principle of Liver and principle of
Bouyancy
Stevinus
(1548-1642)
vector
combination of forces

History of Dynamics
The beginning of a rational understanding of dynamics is
credited to Galileo (1564-1642)
who made careful observations concerning bodies in free fall,
motion on an inclined plane, and motion of the pendulum.

Newton (1642-1727), guided by

Galileo's work, was able to
make an accurate formulation of
the laws of motion
Following
Newton's
time,
important
contributions
to
mechanics were made by Euler,
D'Alembert, Lagrange, Laplace,
Poinsot, Coriolis, Einstein, and

Basic Concepts
Time is a measure of the succession of events
Mass is the quantitative measure of the inertia or resistance to
change in motion of a body.

Mass may also be considered as the quantity of matter in a body as well as the
property which gives rise to gravitational attraction.

Force is the vector action of one body on another.

A particle is a body of negligible dimensions.

When the dimensions of a body are irrelevant to the description of its motion
or the action of forces on it, the body may be treated as a particle. An
airplane, for example, may be treated as a particle for the description of its
flight path.

A rigid body is a body whose changes in shape are negligible

compared with the overall dimensions of the body or with the
changes in position of the body as a whole.

Review: Vector Analysis

Possess MAGNITUDE as well as Direction
Free Vector
Sliding Vector
Fixed Vector
Vector is a quantity which has
magnitude and direction, and
adds
according
to
the
parallelogram law.
As Shown in Fig., A = B + C,
where A is the resultant vector
and B and C are component
vectors.

Unit Vector
A unit vector, UA , has a magnitude of
one dimensionless unit and acts in the
same direction as A.
It is determined by dividing A by its
magnitude A, i.e,

Cartesian Vector Notation

The directions of the positive x, y, z axes are
defined by the Cartesian unit vectors i, j, k,
respectively.
As shown in Fig., vector A is
formulated by the addition of its
x, y, z components as

The magnitude of A is determined from

Cartesian Vector Notation (Contd.)

The direction of A can be defined in terms of its
coordinate direction angles, , , , measured from
the tail of A to the positive x, y, z axes
These angles are determined from the
direction cosines which represent the i, j, k
components of the unit vector UA ; i.e.,

so that the direction cosines are

Hence, Ua = cos i + cos j + cos k

Since:

The Cross Product

The cross product of two vectors A and B, which yields
the resultant vector C, is written as
C=AxB
The magnitude of C is given by:
C = AB sin
where is the angle made between
the tails of A and B (0 180).

The direction of C is determined by the right-hand rule

perpendicular to the plane containing vectors A and B.

Cross Product (Contd.)

The vector cross product is not commutative,

i.e., AxB BxA. Rather,

AxB=-BxA

The distributive law is valid; i.e.,

A x (B + D ) = A x B + A

xD

And the cross product may be multiplied by a scalar m in any

manner; i.e.,

m(A x B) = (mA) x B = A x (mB) = (A x B)m

Equation C = A x B can be used to find the cross product

of any pair of Cartesian unit vectors, using the scheme
shown in the fig., e.g.,

kxi=j

Cross Product (Contd.)

If A and B are expressed in Cartesian
component form, then the cross product
can be evaluated by expanding the
determinant

which yields

The Dot Product

The dot product of two vectors A and B , which yields
a scalar, is defined as

If A and B are expressed in Cartesian component

form, then the dot product can be expressed as

The dot product may be used to determine the angle

formed between two vectors.

The Dot Product (Contd.)

It is also possible to find the component of a vector
in a given direction using the dot product.

From Figure, A cos defines the magnitude of the

component (or projection) of vector A in the direction of
B.
UB represents a unit vector acting in the direction of B

Units
The four fundamental quantities of mechanics, and their units and
symbols for the two systems, are summarized in the following table
U.S. Customary
Units

SI Units
QUANTI DIMENSION
TY
AL SYMBOL

UNITS

SYMBOLS

UNITS

SYMBOLS

Mass

kilogram

kg

slug

Length

meter

foot

ft

Time

second

second

sec

Force

newton

pound

lb

Dimensions
The principle of dimensional homogeneity states
that all physical relations must be dimensionally
homogeneous; that is, the dimensions of all terms in
an equation must be the same.
It is customary to use the symbols L, M, T, and F to
stand for length, mass, time, and force, respectively.
A given dimension such as length can be expressed in
a number of different units such as meters,
millimeters, or kilometers.
Thus, a dimension is different from a unit.

Dimensional Consistency
In SI units force is a derived quantity

F = ma
From above equation force has the
dimensions of mass times acceleration or

[F] = [M][L][T]-2

The End