Engineering Mechanics
Unit-1
First Law of Motion (Law of Inertia)
A body remains at rest or moves with uniform velocity in a straight line unless acted upon by
an external unbalanced force.
Example: A book lying on a table remains at rest until someone pushes it.
Second Law of Motion
The rate of change of momentum of a body is directly proportional to the applied force and
occurs in the direction of the force.
Mathematical form:
𝑭 = 𝒎𝒂
Where:
F = Force
m = Mass of the body
a = Acceleration produced
Example: A football accelerates more when kicked harder.
Third Law of Motion
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Example: When a gun fires a bullet forward, the gun moves backward (recoil).
What is Rigid Body ?
One of the basic idealizations in mechanics is consider the body is rigid.
Definition: It does not deform under the action of forces.
Significance:
1. It simplifies the analysis of mechanical problems.
2. It helps in applying the laws of mechanics easily.
3. Deformation of the body is neglected, reducing complexity.
4. It gives sufficiently accurate results for many engineering structures and machines.
What is Force ?
Force is a useful and simple way of describing a very complex physical interaction between
the bodies”
Effect of a Force
A force changes or tends to change the motion of the body acted on.
Characterized by
Magnitude
Direction
Point of application
Force is a vector.
Units: N (newtons), kgf.
Transmissibility of a Force
Principle of transmissibility states that the external effects of the force are independent of the
point of application of the force along its line of action.
Classification of Force Systems
[Link]: The Lines of action of all forces intersect at a common point.
2. Coplanar: All the forces lie in the same plane.
3. Non Concurrent: Lines of action of all the forces do not intersect a common point.
4. Collinear: All the forces have common action line.
5. Parallel: Lines of action of all the forces are parallel.
Parallelogram Law of Forces
It states, “If two forces, acting simultaneously on a particle, be represented in magnitude and
direction by the two adjacent sides of a parallelogram ; their resultant may be represented in
magnitude and direction by the diagonal of the parallelogram, which passes through their
point of intersection.”
Triangle law of forces
It states, “If two forces acting simultaneously on a particle, be represented in magnitude and
direction by the two sides of a triangle, taken in order ; their resultant may be represented in
magnitude and direction by the third side of the triangle, taken in opposite order.”
Polygon law of forces
It is an extension of Triangle Law of Forces for more than two forces, which states, “If a number
of forces acting simultaneously on a particle, be represented in magnitude and direction, by the
sides of a polygon taken in order ; then the resultant of all these forces may be represented, in
magnitude and direction, by the closing side of the polygon, taken in opposite order.”
[Link] forces of 100 N and 150 N are acting simultaneously at a point. What is the resultant
of these two forces, if the angle between them is 45°?
2.
3.
Resolution of Forces
This is reverse of composition.
The process of splitting a force into two components which will have the same
external effect on a body as the force itself is know as the resolution of a force.
Resultant
Resultant is the single force or vector that has the same effect as two or more forces acting
together on a body.
OR
The resultant replaces a system of forces with one equivalent force.
[Link] forces 20 N, 30 N, 40 N, 50 N and 60 N are acting at one of the angular points of a
regular hexagon, towards the other five angular points, taken in order. Find the magnitude and
direction of the resultant force.
5. The following forces act at a point : (i) 20 N inclined at 30° towards North of East,
(ii) 25 N towards North, (iii) 30 N towards North West, and (iv) 35 N inclined at 40° towards
South of West. Find the magnitude and direction of the resultant force.
Moment of a Force
It is the measure of tendency of the force to rotate the body about the point of interest P.
The moment of a force is equal to the product of the force and the perpendicular distance
of the point, about which the moment is required and the line of action of the force.
M = F × L (N × mm)
clockwise moment as positive
Anticlockwise moment as negative.
VARIGNON’S PRINCIPLE OF MOMENTS (OR LAW OF MOMENTS)
It states, “If a number of coplanar forces are acting simultaneously on a particle, the algebraic
sum of the moments of all the forces about any point is equal to the moment of their resultant
force about the same point.”.
Significance: To find the position of resultant.
6. Fig. shows a crank-lever ABC with a tension spring (T). The lever weighs 0.2 N/mm.
Determine the tension developed in the spring, when a load of 100 N is applied at A.
Moment of a Couple
The force system consists of two equal and parallel but non collinear forces with opposite
sense is called couple.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A COUPLE
1. The algebraic sum of the forces, constituting the couple, is zero.
2. The algebraic sum of the moments of the forces, constituting the couple, about any point
is the same, and equal to the moment of the couple itself.
3. A couple cannot be balanced by a single force. But it can be balanced only by a couple of
opposite sense.
LAMI’S Theorem
If three concurrent and coplanar forces acting on a body having same nature (i,.e,
pulling or pushing) are in equilibrium, then each force is proportional to the sine of angle
between the other two forces.
By Lami’s Theorem,
Limitations of Lami’s Theorem
[Link] is applicable to three non parallel coplanar concurrent forces only
2. Nature of three forces must be same.
[Link] electric light fixture weighting 15 N hangs from a point C, by two strings AC and BC.
The string AC is inclined at 60° to the horizontal and BC at 45° to the horizontal as shown in
Fig Using Lami’s theorem, determine the forces in the strings AC and BC.
8.A smooth circular cylinder of radius 1.5 meter is lying in a triangular groove, one side of
which makes 15° angle and the other 40° angle with the horizontal. Find the reactions at the
surfaces of contact, if there is no friction and the cylinder weights 100 N.
FBD
[Link] cylinders weighting 100 N each and of 80 mm diameter are placed in a channel of 180
mm width as shown in Fig. Determine the pressure exerted by (i) the cylinder A on B at the
point of contact (ii) the cylinder B on the base and (iii) the cylinder B on the wall.
FBD