EN3: Introduction to Engineering and Statics

Division of Engineering
Brown University

1. Introduction
Engineering is the application of mathematics and science to meet human needs. This is fun.
But now we have some bad news. Engineers need to know a great deal of science and
mathematics in order to be able to engineer. Much of this science and mathematics is quite
difficult, and there’s a whole lot of it. It takes many years to learn everything you need. The
next section of the course will start you on your quest to acquire these skills, by introducing you
to statics.

1.1 What is statics?

If you read the latest Critical Review, you will see that EN3 is advertised as covering a great deal
of statistics. That’s because nobody knows what statics is – even Microsoft word. So the spell-
checker they used to type up the CR changed statics to statistics. (That’s the charitable
explanation. It is also possible that last year’s class actually thought they were learning statistics
and said so in the CR evaluations).

The good news is that EN3 isn’t going to even mention statistics (what are the odds of that?
Shoot, we blew it). The bad news is that we are going to mention statics over and over and over
again.

Statics is actually the application of mathematics and basic physics (Newton’s laws) to study
forces in materials, machines and structures. Forces are of interest to engineers for two reasons:
they cause materials to deform and break, and they cause things to move. Statics is used to
calculate forces in systems that don’t move, or move at constant velocity. The application of
physics to study motion is known as dynamics.
1.2 Who needs statics?

You do: You will need to design a structure to support a prescribed

loading for your final class project. To do so, you will need to be able
to calculate the forces in your structure to be sure it won’t collapse. (Of
course, this is a team project. You could try to rely on your team mates
to do this for you. But will have to pass a final exam on statics too).

Actually, all engineers need to be familiar with at least the basic principles of statics, and most
engineers require a sophisticated level of understanding. Examples include

Structural engineers use statics to design buildings and structures, like the one shown below…
The picture is by Adam and Amanda Curtin from
http://www.geocities.com/fodellus/calm20.html

Mechanical engineers use statics to design machinery, which may range from engines to micro-
electro-mechanical systems. The picture below shows a Hooke’s Joint – we will analyze forces
in this mechanical system as a case study later in the course. The animation was created using
Pro/Desktop – you’ll learn how to do this in the CAD section of this course.
Biomedical engineers use statics to design artificial organs and implants. The picture below
shows a hip implant, with a computer simulation of internal forces caused by the implant in a
bone. You can find out more about the CAD simulation on
http://www.hks.com/products/p_app_hip- implant.html

Materials engineers use statics to design microstructures in materials (like composites) to resist
failure. The pictures below show a typical comp osite microstructure (actually concrete – see
ciks.cbt.nist.gov/~garbocz/ cell1994/node9.htm , with a computer simulation of the internal forces
in a similar composite (actually a rather fancy simulation of stresses induced by magnetic forces
- see http://star.tau.ac.il/~strel/rescompos2.html
Electrical engineers who design solid state electronics use statics to design against failure in
microelectronic circuits. Integrated circuits actually contain internal forces that are much higher
than most structures. These forces are usually caused by thermal expansion, or exotic
phenomena such as electromigration. The picture below shows the complexity of typical
microelectronic circuits. Mechanical failures in these devices are a serious problem for the
industry.

Emerging areas Scientists and engineers have recently developed techniques that can be used
to probe and to some extent control individual atoms or collections of atoms. There is great
interest in exploiting these techniques to make self- assembled materials and nanostructures.
Such self- assembly is driven by forces – and very often can be understood using statics.

Of course everyone needs statistics too, but you won’t learn that here.