What is mechanics

•Mechanics is the study of force, deformation, and motion, and the relations between them. We
care about forces because we want to know how hard to push something to move it or whether it
will break when we push on it for other reasons. We care about deformation and motion because
we want things to move or not move in certain ways. Towards these ends we are confronted with

this general mechanics problem: In mechanics we try to solve special cases of the general
mechanics problem above by idealizing the system, using classical Euclidean geometry to
describe deformation and motion, and assuming that the relation between force and motion is
described with Newtonian mechanics, Any mechanics problem can be divided into 3 parts which
we think of as the 3 pillars that hold up the subject:

•1 the mechanical behavior of objects and materials (constitutive laws);

•2 the geometry of motion and distortion (kinematics); and

•3 the laws of mechanics (F = m a, etc.)

Statics is the study of the effect of forces on rigid bodies, which are in equilibrium.
Two forces are in equilibrium when they are equal, in opposing directions, and have
the same line of action. In statics, a body is considered rigid when deformations,
caused by acting forces, are negligibly small compared to the dimensions of the body.
The main task of static analysis is to determine the equilibrium of the forces applied on
a body or a mechanical system. Building on the axioms of mechanics, rigid-body
mechanics deals with the equivalence and equilibrium of force systems, center of
gravity calculations, internal forces, and moments in beams with problems on friction.
Generally, the field looks at supporting structures that are at rest and that must remain
at rest owing to their function. Material properties are not considered in statics; these
are covered by strength of materials.
 The concept of the force
All normal human beings as familiar in the day-to-day activities with the notion of the force. The opening or the closing of
doors nd the lifting of the Wights are experiences which require one to exert force. may be defined as any action that tends
to change the state of rest or motion of a body to which it is applied, that is, a force is a vector quantity.
The three quantities required to completely define force are called its specification or characteristics. So the characteristics of
a force are:
1. Magnitude
2. Point of application
3. Direction of application

Line of action of force

The direction of a force is the direction, along a straight line. through

its point of application in which the force tends to move
a body when it is applied.This line is called line of action of force.

Representation of force

Graphically a force may be represented by the segment of a straight line.

In mechanics as in everyday experiences, forces are usually
produced by the action of one body on another.
Since forces are vector quantities, they will be represented
by bold-face letters such as S and W.
 System of forces

When more then one force acts on a body at a particular instant. They are said to constitute a

system of force. Within the system forces, all the forces may lie on the same plane or on

different planes. If they all lie on the same plane, they are said Coplanar forces. If they all lie

on different planes. They are said to be Non-Coplanar forces. Further, if the lines of action of

all them intersect at a point at in figure 2. They are termed concurrent forces. If not they are

termed non-concurrent forces. Again, if the action of lines of all lie along the same line as in

fig.2. They are termed collinear; and if their lines of action are parrallel to each other as in

Fig.2 they are termed parallel forces.

 Characteristics of the Forces Systems

DESCRIPTION COPLANAR FORCES FORCES IN SPACES

i) Collinear Forces No to possible have

ii) Parallel Forces

ii) Concurrent Forces

iv) Non-Concurrent Forces and non-

Parallel Forces

Fig.2 Graphical representation of various system of forces.

 The resultant of system of forces
The resultant of addition of two forces depends not only on their magnitudes, but also on their directions.
The resultant action of a group or system of forces. Most problems in mechanics deal with a system of forces,
and it is usually necessary to reduce the system to its simplest form to describe its action. The resultant of a
system of forces is the simplest force combination which can replace the original forces without altering the
external effect on the rigid body to which the forces are applied.
Resultant of Coplanar concurrent forces
Various methods are employed to determine the resultant of concurrent forces in a plane. They are describe
below :
a) Graphical methods: Parallelogram law, triangle law and polygon law;
b) Trigonometric methods: Cosine law and sine law;
c) Analytical : Vector approach.
Parallelogram law

The two component forces F1 and F2 acting on the pin in Fig.3 a can be added together to form the
resultant force FR = F1 + F2, as shown in Fig.3.b. From this construction, or using the triangle rule,
Fig. c, we can apply the law of cosines or the law of sines to the triangle in order to obtain the
magnitude of the resultant force and its direction.

Fig.3 The parallelogram law must be

used to determine the resultant of the
two forces acting on the hook.
Trigonometry.

• Redraw a half portion of the parallelogram to illustrate the triangular

head-to-tail addition of the components.
• From this triangle, the magnitude of the resultant force can be
determined using the law of cosines, and its direction is determined
from the law of sines. The magnitudes of two force components
are determined from the law of sines. The formulas are given in Fig.4.

The polygon Law

Fig.4.
To add more than two vectors, the parallelogram can be used by adding two vectors at a time and then continuising the
process.Fig.5 shows the process of adding four P, Q, R, Rf.

Fig.5. Addition of more than two vectors.

Analytical Method

Figure 6 shows two forces P and Q inclined at an angle  and acting at a common point O. We can constract the
parallelogram OACB to find the resultant R given by the diagonal OC. The resultant R makes an angle  with the vector P.
and an angle  with the vector O. From the point C, let us drop a perpendicular CM on t.

Fig.6. Analytical method..

Magnitude of the resultant:
The magnitude of the resultant force R can be found by:

Orientation of the resultant:

The angle  made by the resultant R with the component P can be found from the
triangle OMC:
Example.1:
Find the magnitude and direction of the resultant of two forces of 100 N and 150 N acting at
angle 45°.
 Two-Dimensional Force Systems

The Components of a Force

Sometimes it is necessary to resolve a force into two components in order to study its pulling or pushing effect in
two specific directions. For example, in Fig.6.a, F is to be resolved into two components along the two members,
defined by the u and v axes. In order to determine the magnitude of each component, a parallelogram is
constructed first.
The force components Fu and Fv are then established by simply joining the tail of F to the intersection points on
the u and v axes, Fig.6.b. This parallelogram can then be reduced to a triangle, which represents the triangle rule,
Fig.6.c. From this, the law of sines can then be applied to determine the unknown magnitudes of the components.

Fig.6 Using the parallelogram law force

F caused by the vertical member can be resolved into
components acting along the suspension cables a and b.
 Rectangular Components

Analytical method
Decomposition of two forces
The most common two-dimensional resolution of a force vector is into
rectangular components. It follows from the parallelogram rule that the
vector F of Fig.7. may be written as: F = Fx + Fy
where Fx and Fy are vector components of F in the x and y directions.
Fx = Fx i and Fy = Fy j, and thus we may write
F = Fx i + Fy j
Fig.7.
For the force vector of Fig.7 the x and y scalar components are both positive
and are related to the magnitude and direction of F by F x

y
y
𝛽
F

x
Fx = -F sin 
Fy = -F cos 
Fx = F sin 
Fy = F cos 
• Consider two forces F1 and F2 which are originally concurrent at a point O. Figure 5 shows the line of action
of F2 shifted from O to the tip of F1 according to the triangle rule of Fig. 2. In adding the force vectors F1
and F2, we may write

R = F1 + F2 = (F1x i + F1y j) + (F2x i + F2y j)

y

or Rx i + Ry j = (F1x + F2x)i + (F1y + F2y) j

from which we conclude that Rx = F1x + F2x = ΣFx

Ry = F1y + F2y = ΣFy
The term ΣFx means “the algebraic sum of the x scalar components”. For the
example shown in Fig.8. note that the scalar component F2 would be negative.

The structural elements in the fore-

ground transmit concentrated forces Fig.8.
to the brackets at both ends
 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 Fig.a 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 A plane to obtain their
sum or resultant R, as shown in Fig.a. The F2 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 Fig.b. 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 Fig.
b. We can replace F1 and F2 with the resultant R without altering the external effects on the
body upon which they act.
• We can also use the triangle law to obtain R, but we need to move the line of action of
one of the forces, as shown in Fig. c. If we add the same two forces as shown in Fig.d, we
correctly preserve the magnitude and direction of R, but we lose the correct line of action,
because R obtained in this way does not pass through A. Therefore this type of
combination should be avoided. We can express the sum of the two forces mathematically
by the vector equation: R = F1+F2
Coplanar Force Resultants.
We can use either of the two methods just described to determine the resultant of several coplanar forces.

The vector resultant is therefore

FR = F1 + F2 + F3 F1 = F1x i + F1y j
= F1xi + F1y j - F2xi + F2y j + F3x i-F3y j F2 = -F2x i + F2y j
= (F1x - F2x + F3x)i + (F1y + F2y - F3y)j F3 = F3x i - F3y j
=(FRx)i + (FRy)j

If scalar notation is used, then we have

FRx = F1x - F2x + F3x

FRy = F1y + F2y - F3y

These are the same results as the i and j components of FR

determined above.
We can represent the components of the resultant force of
any number of coplanar forces symbolically by the algebraic
sum of the x and y components of all the forces, i.e.,
 As shown in Fig. From this sketch, the magnitude of FR is then found from the Pythagorean theorem;
that is,

Also, the angle , which specifies the direction of the resultant force, is determined from trigonometry

Example.2:

The maintain an electric pole AB upright, a guy wire AC is tied to it, as

shown in figure 9. The guy wire makes an angle of 60° to the
horizental and exerts a force of 20 kN on the pole. Find the horizental
and vertical components of this force.
Solution: The resolution of the force F exerted by the guy wire is shown in figure.(b).The two

components are given as:

FH = F cos60° = 20 cos 60° = 10 kN.

FV = F sin 60° = 20 sin 60° = 17.32 kN.

 Three-Dimensional Force Systems
Concurrent force in space
Rectangular Components
Many problems in mechanics require analysis in three dimensions, and for such problems it is often necessary
to resolve a force into its three mutually perpendicular components. The force F acting at point O in Fig.7 has
the rectangular components Fx, Fy, Fz, where
Fx = F cos 𝜃x
Fy = F cos 𝜃y
Fz = F cos 𝜃z F = F(cos 𝜃x i +cos 𝜃y j + cos 𝜃z k)

Cartesian Vectors
The unit vector u has a lenght of one,no units, and it points in the direction
of the vector F.
A force can be resolved unto its Cartesian components along the x, y, z axes so that
F = Fx i + Fy j + Fz k  2 2 2
F = F = Fx + Fy + Fz
 To find the resultant of concurrent force system, express each force as a Cartisian vector and add the i, j, k
components of all the forces in the system.
If the line of action of a force passes throught pionts A and B, then the force acts in the same direction as the
position vector . Which is defined by the unit vector .The force can then be expressed as a Cartisian.
An easy way to find a unit vector in the direction of a vector is to divide by its magnitude. Thus is a unit

vector in the direction

A common situation is to know that a force is a yet unknown scalar F Fig.10

multiplied by a unit vector pointing between known points A and B. (fig.10).
We can then write as

.
Example 3:

(a) Determine the x, y and z scalar components of the projection Fxy of F on the x-y plane.

(b) projection Fxy of F on the x-y plane.

(c) projection FOB of F along the line OB.