EAS 207 – STATICS

Lecture 1

Engineering and Mechanics:

• Engineers are responsible for the design, construction, testing and
maintenance of various devices, such as, cars, airplanes, buildings,
highways, bridges and spacecraft. Therefore, they must have a good
understanding of the physics underlying these machines and structures,
and must be familiar with the use of mathematical models to predict system
behavior.

• Student of engineering begin to learn how to analyze and predict the

behavior of physical systems by studying mechanics.

• Mechanics was the first analytical science and thus fundamental concepts,
analytical methods, and analogies from mechanics are found in virtually
every field of engineering. Chemical and Electrical engineering students
gain a deeper appreciation for basic concepts in their fields, such as,
equilibrium, energy and stability by learning them in their original
mechanics context.

Mechanics:

It is the branch of Physical Science that deals with response of bodies to the
action of forces (mechanical disturbances). Mechanics plays a greater role in
engineering than any other Physical Science.

The study of mechanics is divided into three parts:

(A) Mechanics of Rigid Bodies (Statics and Dynamics)
(B) Mechanics of Deformable Bodies (Solid Mechanics)
(C) Mechanics of Fluids

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Mechanics of Rigid Bodies:

(1) Statics – It is concerned with bodies that are acted on by balanced forces
and hence are at rest or have uniform motion (zero acceleration).

(2) Dynamics (Kinematics and Kinetics):

Kinematics – Concerned with the motion of bodies without considering the
manner in which the motion is produced (concerned with geometry of
motion). For example, motion of cam shafts, gears etc.
Kinetics – Concerned with bodies that are acted on by unbalanced forces.
Hence, they have non-uniform or accelerated motions. It provides
relationships between the motion of a body and the forces and moments
acting on the body.

Historical Background of Mechanics

Archytas of Tarentum (400 B.C.) --- The theory of pulleys

Archimedes (287 – 212 B. C.) --- The principle of buoyancy & mechanism of
a lever
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) --- Concept of moments

Stevinus (1548 – 1620) --- Behavior of a body on a smooth inclined

plane & the parallelogram law of addition of forces

Galileo (1564-1642) --- Principle of virtual displacement

Huygens (1629-1695) --- Worked with pedulums & invented the pendulum clock

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) --- Laws of motion & the law of Universal
Gravitation

Euler (1707 – 1793) – Extended Newton’s work on particle to rigid bodies and
defined moment of inertia

Max Plank (1858 – 1947) --- Formulation of Quantum Mechanics

Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) --- Formulation of the theory of relativity (1905)
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 • The new theories do not repudiate Newtonian Mechanics; they are simple
more general.
• Newtonian Mechanics is applicable for prediction of motion of bodies when
the speeds/velocities are small compared to the speed of light.

Basic Dimensions:
Basic or primary dimensions are independent of all dimensions and cannot be
expressed in terms of the other quantities or in simpler terms.

The basic dimensions of mechanics are: Length, time and mass

The dimensions that are developed in terms of basic dimensions are called
secondary dimensions (e.g., force, acceleration)

Body: A body is a matter bounded by a closed surface. Matter is any substance

that occupies space.

Inertia: The property of a body that causes it to resist any change in motion is
known as Inertia.

Mass: Mass is a quantitative measure of inertia.

Identification for basic dimensions:

Length [ L ] ; time [ t ] or [ T ] ; mass [ M ] or [ m ]

Secondary dimensions:

[ Velocity ] ≡ [ L ] / [ t ]

[ Force ] ≡ [ Mass ] [ Acceleration ] ≡ [ m ] [ L ] / [ t ]2

Where, ≡ stands for physical equivalent

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Unit of Mass:
Newton’s law of gravitation: FG = G m1 m2 / r2

Where, G = 6.673 x 10-11 m3/Kg.sec2

= 3.439 x 10-8 ft3/ Slug.sec2

The weight W of a body is the gravitational attraction exerted on the body by the
Earth (or any other planet).

W = G me m / re2 = m (G me/ re2) = m g

Where, me = mass of the Earth, re = mean radius of the earth, and

g = G me/ re2 = gravitational acceleration = 32.2 ft/ sec2 = 9.81 m/sec2

Thus, Mass = weight / g

SI Units: m ( in kilograms) = W (in Newtons) / 9.81

US Customary Units: m (in slugs) = W (in pounds) / 32.2

Basic Idealizations of Mechanics:

Since the relationships between the external and internal forces and the motions
or deformations that they produce are stated in mathematical form, the true
physical situation must be represented by a mathematical model to obtain the
required solution.

Thus, it is often necessary to make assumptions or approximation in setting up

the mathematical model in order to simplify the solution (or make the problem
amenable to solution).

Usually, an actual physical problem cannot be solved exactly or completely.

However, even for complicated problems, a simplified model can provide good
qualitative results.

Most fundamental idealizations of Mechanics are:

(1) Particle, (2) Point force, (3) Continuum & (4) Rigid Body

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Particle: An object that has a mass but its shape does not influence the solution.

Point force: A finite force transmitted through an infinitesimal area (or point).

Continuum: Bodies having a hypothetically continuous distribution of matter.

Rigid Body: The shape of the body has a negligible effect on the acceleration
produced by a force system or on the reaction required to maintain
equilibrium of the body.

Rigid body assumption: Use the original geometry for calculations.

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Examples:

(1) Block sliding down an inclined plane

Rigid body or Particle?

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(2) Earth revolving around sun

(3) Earth rotating around its axis

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