GENERAL PRINCIPLES
INTRODUCTION TO MECHANICS
Mechanics is the branch of the physical sciences that deals with the response of bodies to the action
of forces. The subject matter of this field constitutes a large part of our knowledge of the laws
governing the behavior of gases and liquids as well as the laws governing the behavior of solid
bodies. The laws of mechanics find application in astronomy and physics as well as in the study of the
machines and structures involved in engineering practice.
A study of the mechanics of rigid bodies can be further subdivided into three main divisions: statics,
kinematics, and kinetics.
1. Statics is concerned with bodies that are acted on by balanced forces and hence are at rest
or have uniform motion. Such bodies are said to be in equilibrium. Statics is an important part
of the study of mechanics because it provides methods for the determination of support
reactions and relationships between internal force distributions and external loads for
stationary structures.
2. Kinematics is concerned with the motion of bodies without considering the manner in which
the motion is produced. Kinematics is sometimes referred to as the geometry of motion.
Kinematics forms an important part of the study of mechanics, not only because of its
application to problems in which forces are involved, but also because of its application to
problems that involve only motions of parts of a machine.
3. Kinetics is concerned with bodies that are acted on by unbalanced forces; hence, they have
nonuniform or accelerated motions. A study of kinetics is an important part of the study of
mechanics because it provides relationships between the motion of a body and the forces and
moments acting on the body. Kinetic relationships may be obtained by direct application of
Newton's laws of motion or by using the integrated forms of the equations of motion that result
in the principles of work energy or impulse-momentum.
Dynamics is used in the technical literature to denote the subdivisions of mechanics with which the
idea of motion is most closely associated, namely, kinematics and kinetics.
The branch of mechanics that deals with internal force distributions and the deformations developed
in actual engineering structures and machine components when they are subjected to systems of
forces is known as mechanics of deformable bodies.
The branch of mechanics that deals with liquids and gases at rest or in motion is known as fluid
mechanics. Fluids can be classified as compressible or incompressible. A fluid is said to be
compressible if the density of the fluid varies with temperature and pressure. If the volume of a fluid
remains constant during a change in pressure, the fluid is said to be incompressible. Liquids are
considered incompressible for most engineering applications. A subdivision of fluid mechanics that
deals with incompressible liquids is commonly known as hydraulics.
FUNDAMENTAL QUANTITIES OF MECHANICS
Space is the geometric region in which the physical events of interest in mechanics occur. The region
extends without limit in all directions. The measure u ed to describe the size of a physical system is
known as length. The position of a point in space can be determined relative to some reference point
by using linear and angular measurements with respect to a coordinate system whose origin is at the
reference point.
Time can be defined as the interval between two events. Measurements of this interval are made by
making comparisons with some reproducible event such as the time required for the earth to orbit the
sun or the time required for the earth to rotate on its axis. Solar time is earth rotation time measured
with respect to the sun and is used for navigation on earth and for daily living purposes.
Matter is any substance that occupies space. A body is matter bounded by a closed surface. The
property of a body that causes it to resist any change in motion is known as inertia. Mass is a
quantitative measure of inertia. The resistance a body offers to a change in translational motion is
independent of the size and shape of the body. It depends only on the mass of the body. The
resistance a body offers to a change in rotational motion depends on the distribution of the mass of
the body. Mass is also a factor in the gravitational attraction between two bodies.
A force can be defined as the action of one body on another body. Our concept of force comes
mainly from personal experiences in which we are one of the bodies and tension or compression of
our muscles results when we try to ''pull" or "push" the second body. This is an example of force
resulting from direct contact between bodies. A force can also be exerted between bodies that are
physically separated. Gravitational forces exerted by the earth on the moon and on artificial satellites
to keep them in earth orbit are examples.
A particle is an object whose size and shape can be ignored when studying its motion. Only the
position of the mass center of the particle need be considered. The orientation of the object or rotation
of the object plays no role in describing the motion of a particle. Particles can be very small or very
large. Smallness does not always guarantee that an object can be modeled as a particle; largeness
does not always prevent modeling an object as a particle. For example, for studies of the orbital
motion of the earth about the sun, the earth can be considered to be a particle because the rotation
and internal structure of the earth have only insignificant effects on its orbital motion.
A rigid body can be represented as a collection of particles. The size and shape of the body as well
as the relative position of the particles comprising the body remain constant at all times and under all
conditions of loading. The rigid-body concept represents an idealization of the true situation since all
real bodies will change shape to a certain extent when subjected to a system of forces. Such changes
are small for most structural elements and machine parts encountered in engineering practice;
therefore, they have only a negligible effect on the acceleration produced by the force system or on
the reactions required to maintain equilibrium of the body.
Newton's Laws of Motion
Law 1. Every body perseveres in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line, except in so far
as it is compelled to change that state by impressed forces.
Law 2. Change of motion is proportional to the moving force impressed and takes place in the
direction of the straight line in which such force is impressed.
Law 3. Reaction is always equal and opposite to action; that is to say, the actions of two bodies upon
each other are always equal and directly opposite.
These laws, which have come to be known as "Newton's Laws of Motion," are commonly expressed
today as follows:
Law 1. A particle originally at rest will remain at rest; a particle originally moving with a constant
velocity will continue to move with a constant velocity along a straight line, unless the particle is acted
on by an unbalanced force.
Law 2. When a particle is acted on by an unbalanced force, the particle will be accelerated in the
direction of the force; the magnitude of the acceleration will be directly proportional to the force and
inversely proportional to the mass of the particle.
Law 3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The forces of action and reaction
between contacting bodies are equal in magnitude, opposite in direction, and collinear.
The first law of motion is a special case of the second law and covers the case where the particle is in
equilibrium. Thus, the first law provides the foundation for the study of statics. The second law of
motion provides the foundation for the study of dynamics. The mathematical statement of the second
law that is widely used in dynamics is
F = ma
where
F is the external force acting on the particle,
m is the mass of the particle, and
a is the acceleration of the particle in the direction of the force.
The third law of motion provides the foundation for an understanding of the concept of a force since in
practical engineering applications the word action is taken to mean force. Thus, if one body exerts a
force on a second body, the second body exerts an equal and opposite force on the first.
The law that governs the mutual attraction between two isolated bodies was also formulated by
Newton and is known as the "Law of Gravitation." This law can be expressed mathematically as
F = Gm1m2
r2
where
F is the magnitude of the mutual force of attraction between the two bodies.
G is the universal gravitational constant,
m1 is the mass of one of the bodies,
m2 is the mass of the second body, and
r is the distance between the centers of mass of the two bodies.
G = 3.439(10−8 ) ft 3I (slug · s2) in the U.S. Customary system of units
G = 6.673(10−11 ) m 3 / (kg · s2) in the SI system of units
Mass and Weight
The mass m of a body is an absolute quantity that is independent of the position of the body and
independent of the surroundings in which the body is placed. The weight W of a body is the
gravitational attraction exerted on the body by the earth or by any other massive body such as the
moon. Therefore, the weight of the body depends on the position of the body relative to some other
body
The internationally adopted standard value for the gravitational acceleration at sea level and at a
latitude of 45° is
g = 9.80665 m/s2
or g = 32.1740 ft/s2
Approximate values for the gravitational acceleration that are suitable for most engineering
computations are
g = 32.17 ft/s2 = 9.807 m/s2
UNITS OF MEASUREMENT
Fundamental quantities cannot be defined in terms of other physical quantities. The number of
quantities regarded as fundamental is the minimum number needed to give a consistent and complete
description of all the physical quantities ordinarily encountered in the subject area. Examples of
quantities viewed as fundamental in the field of mechanics are length and time.
Derived quantities are those whose defining operations are based on measurements of other physical
quantities. Examples of derived quantities in mechanics are area, volume, velocity, and acceleration.
Some quantities may be viewed as either fundamental or derived.
The U.S. Customary System of Units
Until very recently almost all engineers in the United States used the U.S. Customary System of Units
(sometimes called the British gravitational system) in which the base units are foot (ft) for length, the
pound (lb) for force, and the second (s) for time. In this system, the foot is defined as 0.3048 m,
exactly. The pound is defined as the weight at sea level and at a latitude of 45 degrees of a platinum
standard, which is kept at the Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. This platinum standard has a
mass of 0.453,592A3 kg. The second is defined in the
same manner as in the SI system.
In the U.S. Customary System, the unit of mass is derived and is called a slug. One slug is the mass
that is accelerated one foot per second squared by a force of one pound, or 1 slug equals 1 lb·s2Ift.
Since the weight of the platinum standard depends on the gravitational attraction of the earth, the U.S.
Customary System is a gravitational system of units rather than an absolute system of units.
The International System of Units (SI)
The original metric system provided a set of units for the measurement of length, area, volume,
capacity, and mass based on two fundamental units: the meter and the kilogram. With the addition of
a unit of time, practical measurements began to be based on the meter-kilogramsecond (mks)
system of units. In 1960 the Eleventh General Conference on Weights and Measures formally
adopted the Systeme international d'unites (International System of Units), for which the abbreviation
is SI in all languages, as the international standard. Thirty-six countries, including the United States,
participated in this conference.
The International System of Units adopted by the conference includes three classes of units: (1) base
units, (2) supplementary units, and (3) derived units.