Mechanics

Dr. Yasmin Mohamed Yousef Bakier

• Physics Department - Faculty of Science - Assiut
University - Egypt
𝟓𝒕𝒉 floor, Room no. 510
Physics and Measurements
 Conversion of units
Sometimes it is necessary to convert units from one system to another.
Examples :
1 mile = 1609 m =1.609 km
1 ft = 0.3048 m = 30.48 cm
1 inch = 0.0254 m = 2.54 cm
Example
The mass of a solid cube is 856 g, and each edge has a length of 5.35 cm. Determine the density  of
the cube in basic SI units?
Answer: 1g = 10-3 kg 1cm = 10-2 m
Volume = L3=(5.35x10-2 )3 =1.53x10-4 m3
Mass=856x10-3= 0.856 kg
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Density = 5.59x103 kg /m3
Quizzes
Quizzes
 Problems
1. What mass of a material with density is required to make a hollow spherical shell having inner radius r1
and outer radius r2?

2. Calculate the mass of an atom of (a) helium, (b) iron, and (c) lead. Give your answers in grams. The atomic
masses of these atoms are 4.00 u, 55.9 u, and 207 u, respectively.
Mm
3. Newton’s law of universal gravitation is represented by F = G r 2
Here F is the gravitational force exerted by one small object on another, M and m are the masses of the
objects, and r is a distance. Force has the SI units kg.m/s2. What are the SI units of the proportionality
constant G?
 Problems
Answers:
1. 2.
 Vectors

Scalar quantity: specified by a value with a unit and without direction

such as temperature, speed and mass.
Vector quantity: specified by a number with a unit and a has direction
such as velocity and force.
Difference between both quantities:
(distance and displacement) & (speed and velocity)

• A particle travels to a distance from A to B along the path shown by the broken line.
This is the distance traveled and is a scalar.
• The displacement is the solid line from A to B and is independent of the path taken
between the two points.
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The displacement is a vector.
 Vector properties
• The vector magnitude has physical units (m/sec., N, m/sec.2,…)
• The magnitude is always a positive number.
• The direction is an angle relative to a reference line (positive x-axis direction).
• Vectors could be written as 𝐴Ԧ or in a bold print A

• While the magnitude of a vector, is written in italic letter as A or 𝐴Ԧ

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 Vector Components
• Components are the projections of a vector along the x- and y-axes.
• The magnitude of the x-component of a vector is the projection along the x-axis.
𝑨𝒙 = 𝑨 𝒄𝒐𝒔 𝜽
• The magnitude of the y-component of a vector is the projection along the y-axis.
𝑨𝒚 = 𝑨 𝒔𝒊𝒏 𝜽
• This assumes the angle θ is measured with respect to the x-axis.
• The magnitude A and the direction θ of any vector 𝐴Ԧ could be found using the magnitude
of the components Ax and Ay.
𝑨= 𝑨𝒙 𝟐 + 𝑨𝒚 𝟐
𝑨𝒚
𝜽= 𝒕𝒂𝒏−𝟏
𝑨𝒙
• The components could be positive or negative, have the same units as the original
vector and their signs depend on the angle. 12
 Vector Components
• A unit vector is a dimensionless vector with a magnitude of exactly 1 and are only used to
specify the direction.
𝒊Ƹ = 𝒋Ƹ = 𝒌 ෡ =𝟏
• The complete vector (in three dimensions) can be expressed as:
𝐴Ԧ = 𝐴𝑥 𝑖Ƹ + 𝐴𝑦 𝑗Ƹ + 𝐴𝑧 𝑘෠

• The vector form in two dimensions:

𝐴Ԧ = 𝐴𝑥 𝑖Ƹ + 𝐴𝑦 𝑗Ƹ

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 Operations on Vectors
Equality Addition Subtraction

• These four vectors are

equal because they have This construction
The resultant vector is
equal lengths and point in shows how to
the one that completes
the same direction. subtract vector from
the polygon.
• Vector can be moved to a another vector.
position parallel to itself 14
 Adding & subtracting Vectors

• We could add or subtract two or more vectors algebraically by using the complete vector form
described by the unit vectors, as follows:
𝑅 = 𝐴Ԧ + 𝐵

𝑅 = 𝐴𝑥 𝑖Ƹ + 𝐴𝑦 𝑗Ƹ + 𝐵𝑥 𝑖Ƹ + 𝐵𝑦 𝑗Ƹ

𝑅 = 𝐴𝑥 + 𝐵𝑥 𝑖Ƹ + 𝐴𝑦 + 𝐵𝑦 𝑗Ƹ

𝑅 = 𝑅𝑥 𝑖Ƹ + 𝑅𝑦 𝑗Ƹ

Where 𝑅𝑥 = 𝐴𝑥 + 𝐵𝑥 and 𝑅𝑦 = 𝐴𝑦 + 𝐵𝑦 are the components of 𝑅.

• While the magnitude R and the direction θ are given by
2 2 𝑅𝑦
𝑅= 𝑅𝑥 + 𝑅𝑦 𝜃= 𝑡𝑎𝑛−1
𝑅𝑥 16
 Adding & subtracting Vectors
Example
Given the vectors A = 2.00 i +6.00 j and B = 3.00 i - 2.00 j, C = A + B and the vector
difference D = A - B. Calculate C and D, first in terms of unit vectors and then in terms of
magnitudes and angles.
Answer
𝑪 = 𝑨 + 𝑩
𝑪 = 2.00 𝒊 + 6.00 𝒋 + 3.00 𝒊 − 2.00 𝒋
𝑪=5𝒊 + 4𝒋
Then the magnitude is
𝑪 = 52 + 42 = 25 + 16 = 6.4
In addition, the direction is
−1
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𝜃𝐶 = 𝑡𝑎𝑛 = 38.7°
5
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 Adding & subtracting Vectors

On the other hand,

𝑫 = 𝑨− 𝑩
𝑫 = 2.00 𝒊 + 6.00 𝒋 − 3.00 𝒊 − 2.00 𝒋
𝑫=−𝒊 + 8𝒋
Then the magnitude is
𝑫 = −1 2 + 82 = 1 + 64 = 8.06
In addition, the direction is
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𝜃𝐷 = 𝑡𝑎𝑛−1 = 97.125°
−1
Note while calculations:
If the x-component of any vector is a negative value, then add 180° to the angle calculated
using the calculator to correct the sign error.
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 Vector Multiplication

• The multiplication of a vector by a scalar quantity produce a vector product that changes its
magnitude.
• It reverses its direction if the scalar quantity is negative.
• For any scalar quantity 𝑎 and a vector 𝑅 :
𝑎. 𝑅 = 𝑎. 𝑅𝑥 𝑖Ƹ + 𝑅𝑦 𝑗Ƹ + 𝑅𝑧 𝑘෠ = 𝑎. 𝑅𝑥 𝑖Ƹ + 𝑎. 𝑅𝑦 𝑗Ƹ + 𝑎. 𝑅𝑧 𝑘෠
• The multiplication of two vectors may be done by two methods:
• The scalar (dot) product that produces a scalar quantity
Ԧ 𝐵 = 𝐴𝑥 𝐵𝑥 + 𝐴𝑦 𝐵𝑦 + 𝐴𝑧 𝐵𝑧 = 𝐴𝐵 cos 𝜃
𝐴.
Where 𝜃 is the angle between 𝐴Ԧ and 𝐵
• The vector product that produces a vector quantity
𝑖Ƹ 𝑗Ƹ 𝑘෠
𝐴Ԧ × 𝐵 = 𝐴𝑥 𝐴𝑦 𝐴𝑧 = 𝐴𝑦 𝐵𝑧 − 𝐴𝑧 𝐵𝑦 𝑖Ƹ − 𝐴𝑥 𝐵𝑧 − 𝐴𝑧 𝐵𝑥 𝑗Ƹ + 𝐴𝑥 𝐵𝑦 − 𝐴𝑦 𝐵𝑥 𝑘෠
𝐵𝑥 𝐵𝑦 𝐵𝑧
𝐴Ԧ × 𝐵 = 𝐴𝐵 sin 𝜃 12
 Product on Vectors
Vector product

Scalar Product Vector Product

The scalar product of two vectors 𝐴 and 𝐵 is Given any two vectors 𝐴 and 𝐵, the vector product 𝐴 × 𝐵
defined as: is defined as a third vector 𝐶റ , which has a magnitude of
റ 𝐵 = | 𝐴 | | 𝐵|𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃, where is the angle
𝐴. 𝐴𝐵𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃, where𝜃 is the angle between 𝐴 and 𝐵. That is ,if
between the vectors 𝐴റ and 𝐵 . 𝐶റ is given by
റ 𝐵 is a scalar quantity.
Note that: 𝐴. 𝐶റ = 𝐴 × 𝐵 =𝐴𝐵𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 its magnitude is 𝐶=𝐴𝐵𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃
• Scalar product is commutative: 𝐴. റ 𝐵 = 𝐵. 𝐴റ • The vector product is not commutative. Instead, the
• Scalar product obeys distributive law of order in which the two vectors are multiplied in a vector
റ + 𝐶റ )= 𝐴.
multiplication : 𝐴.(𝐵 റ 𝐵 + 𝐴.
റ 𝐶റ product is important:
𝐴 × 𝐵 = - 𝐵 × 𝐴റ
• If 𝐴 is parallel to 𝐵 ( 𝜃= 0 or 180°), then 𝐴 × 𝐵 =0.
• If 𝐴റ is perpendicular to 𝐵, then |𝐴 × 𝐵| =𝐴𝐵.
•The vector product obeys the distributive law:
𝐴 × (𝐵 + 𝐶) റ = 𝐴 × 𝐵 + 𝐴 × 𝐶റ
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 Product on Vectors

Example:

(B)

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Product on Vectors

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 Vector Multiplication

Example

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 Vector Multiplication
Example Answer

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