APPLIED MECHANICS

Caleb Kandoro
Work
• Work is the activity involving a force and movement in the
direction of that force.
• The inclusion of direction makes it a vector quantity thus if
a force is applied without movement in the direction of te
force NO WORK IS DONE
• Its unit is the joule(J) and is measured as Nm
• W = Fd (Force x distance)
• In SI base units:
– kg m2 s-2
Energy
• In simple terms is the capacity to do work.
• It takes many forms:
– potential
– kinetic
– electrical
– thermal
And more
Energy is also measured in Joules with the same SI base units
as work, it can be termed the energy transferred to an object
moved one meter by a force of one newton
Energy continued...

Unlike work, energy is a scalar quantity, direction is not

significant in its measurement
The principle of conservation of energy states that energy
cannot be created or destroyed only changed from one
form to another
Thus the energy of any given closed system remains
constant
For instance when energy is expended to raise a weight on
a pulley it also gains potential energy
Power
• It is defined as the rate of doing work, or the rate of
consuming energy.
• It is also a scalar quantity
• It is measured in watts where 1 watt = 1 Joule per second
• SI base units kg m2 s-3
• P = Work done / time taken
Conservation of angular momentum
• The law of conservation of angular momentum states that
when no external torque acts on an object, no change in
angular momentum will occur
• Angular momentum is the rotational equivalent of linear
momentum, the later being mv( mass x velocity)
• Angular momentum(L) is a vector quantity describing the
product of a particles moment of inertia(I) and its angular
velocity(w)
Angular momentum continued...
• To illustrate:

Given an origin O and a radius r for

the particle m,
L = Iw( I-rotational Inertia w-angular
velocity)
v
I = mr , w=
2
r
L = mvr
For non circular motion the velocity
can be resolved into two components,
one parallel to the radius vector and
one perpedoicular to it. it is the later
used to calculate angular momentum
as mv r sin (theta)