MAE 241 - Statics

Summer 2011

Dr. Konstantinos A. Sierros

Office Hours: M and W 10:30 – 11:30 (263 ESB new add)
kostas.sierros@mail.wvu.edu
Teaching Blog: http://wvumechanicsonline.blogspot.com
 Chapter 2:Force vectors

Objectives
• To show how to add forces and
resolve them into components
using the Parallelogram Law
• Cartesian vectors
• Introduce dot product
 2.1 Scalars and vectors

A scalar is any positive or negative physical quantity that can be

completely specified by its magnitude (eg. length, mass, time)
A vector is any physical quantity that requires both a magnitude
and a direction for its complete description (eg. force, moment)
 2.2 Vector operations

Multiplication and division of a vector by a scalar

• If a vector is multiplied by a positive scalar, its magnitude is
increased by that amount
• If a vector is multiplied by a negative scalar it will also change
the directional sense of the vector
 2.2 Vector operations
Vector addition
• All vector quantities obey the parallelogram law of addition
• If we have two ‘component’ vectors A and B, they can be added
to form a ‘resultant’ vector R=A+B
-First join the tails of the ‘component’ vectors
-From the head of B draw a line parallel to A. Draw another line
from head of A that is parallel to B. These lines intersect at point P
-The diagonal of the parallelogram forms R
 2.2 Vector operations
Vector addition
• We can also add B to A using the triangle rule which is a special
case of the parallelogram law
• B is added to A in a ‘head to tail’ fashion
• R extends from the tail of A to the head of B
• Vector addition is cumulative (i.e R=A+B=B+A)
 2.2 Vector operations

Vector addition
• A special case is when A and B are collinear (they act in the
same line)
• The parallelogram law reduces to an algebraic or scalar addition
R=A+B
 2.2 Vector operations
Vector subtraction
• The resultant of the difference between two vectors A and B may
be expressed as:
R´=A-B=A+(-B)
• The rules of vector addition apply to vector subtraction
 2.3 Vector addition of forces
Finding a resultant force
• Two common problems in statics involve
either finding the resultant force or resolving a
known force to its components
• Forces F1 and F2 can be added together to form
the resultant force FR (FR=F1+F2)
• In order to find the magnitude and direction of
FR we need to use the law of cosines or the law
of sines
 2.3 Vector addition of forces

Finding the components of a force

• In order to resolve a force into two
components construct a parallelogram
by drawing lines starting from the tip of F
parallel to u and v axes
• Fu and Fv are then established by joining
the tail of F to the intersection point
 2.3 Vector addition of forces

Addition of several forces

• If we have more than two forces to add,
successive applications of the parallelogram
rule need to be carried out
• First find F1+F2
• Then add to F3 in order to get FR
FR=(F1+F2)+F3
• However, adding more than two forces is
complicated enough in terms of geometry
and trigonometry. An easier method will be
presented later (section 2.4)
 Procedure of analysis

Problems that involve addition of two forces can be

solved using:
• Parallelogram law
…and…
• Trigonometry
-Redraw half portion of the parallelogram to illustrate
the triangular head to tail addition of components
-From the triangle the resultant force can be calculated
from the law of cosines and its direction from the law
of sines
 2.4 Addition of a system of coplanar forces
When a force is resolved into two components along
x and y axes, the components are called rectangular
components
• For analysis purposes these components can be
represented in either scalar or Cartesian vector
notation
Scalar notation
F=Fx+Fy
Fx=Fcosθ and Fy=Fsinθ

• The direction of F can be also defined using a

small ‘slope’ triangle
• Since the ‘small’ triangle is similar with the larger
shaded triangle we have;
 2.4 Addition of a system of coplanar forces

Cartesian vector notation

• x and y components can be
represented in terms of Cartesian unit
vectors i and j
F = Fxi+Fyj
 2.4 Addition of a system of coplanar forces
Coplanar force resultants
• We can use both the two methods
described to determine the resultant
of several coplanar forces
• F1=F1xi+F1yj
F2=-F2xi+F2yj
F3= F3xi-F3yj
FR= F1+ F2+ F3=
=F1xi+F1yj-F2xi+F2yj+F3xi-F3yj=
=(F1x- F2x+ F3x)i+(F1y+F2y -F3y)j=
=(FRx)i+(FRy)j
…or…
(+ ) FRx=F1x-F2x+F3x
 2.4 Addition of a system of coplanar forces

Coplanar force resultants

• We can represent the components of
the resultant force of any number of
coplanar forces symbolically using the
algebraic sum of the x and y forces

FRx=ΣFx
FRy=ΣFy
 2.5 Cartesian vectors

Right-handed coordinate system

• If thumb points in the direction of positive z
axis,
the rectangular coordinate system is called right-
handed
 2.5 Cartesian vectors

Rectangular components of a vector

• A vector A may have one, two or
three rectangular components along
the x,y,z coordinate axes

A=Ax+Ay+Az
 2.5 Cartesian vectors

Cartesian unit vectors

• i, j, k are used to designate the directions
of the x,y,z axes respectively
 2.5 Cartesian vectors

Cartesian vector representation

A=Axi+Ayj+Azk

• This form is advantageous

because it separates the
magnitude and the direction of
each component vector and
makes it more simple when we
have to deal with 3D problems
 2.5 Cartesian vectors

Magnitude of a Cartesian vector

• The blue shaded right angle triangle gives
us:

• The gray shaded right angle gives us:

Combining the above two…

 2.5 Cartesian vectors

Direction of a Cartesian vector

• We define the direction of A by defining

The coordination direction angles α,β and γ
 2.6 Addition of Cartesian vectors

Solving 3D problems…

FR=ΣF= ΣFxi+ ΣFyj+ ΣFzk