MECHANICS

Mechanics is the oldest branch of physics concerned with the motions of physical
objects, specifically the relationships among force, matter, and motion.
 STATICS is the branch of Mechanics which deals with forces acting on and in a
body at rest.
 DYNAMICS is the branch of Mechanics which deals with motion of material
objects by taking into account the cause of motion.
 KINEMATICS describes the possible motions of a body or system of
bodies without regard to the causes of motion.
 KINETICS attempts to explain or predict the motion that will occur in a
given situation.

VECTORS and SCALARS

 SCALARS are quantities having magnitude but no direction. Examples are mass,
volume, density, area, temperature, speed, pressure, power.
 VECTORS are quantities with magnitude and direction. Examples are force,
momentum, velocity and acceleration. Vectors are drawn as arrows, whose length
represents the magnitude and the arrowhead points to the direction of the vector.

Force is a push or a pull exerted by a body upon another body. Forces applied to
objects result in displacements, or changes of an object’s position relative to its
environment.

Kinds of Force
1. Concurrent Forces are forces acting at a point on a body or whose lines of action
meet at a point.
2. Non-concurrent Forces are forces acting on a body whose lines of action do not
converge at a common point.
3. Coplanar Forces are forces acting on one plane.
4. Non-coplanar Forces are forces acting on more than one plane.
 Non-Concurrent Non-coplanar

 RESULTANT is the overall force acting on an object when all the individual
forces acting on the object are added together. It is a single force that will
produce the same effect on the body as that produced by the given forces.
 EQUILIBRANT is a force which brings a body into mechanical equilibrium. It
is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction as the resultant.

SOLUTION OF VECTORS
1. GEOMETRIC or GRAPHICAL SOLUTION
A. Parallelogram Method
The resultant of two vectors acting at any angle may be represented by the
diagonal of the parallelogram, with the two vectors as the sides, drawn to scale.
The direction of the resultant is away from the origin of the two vectors.
B. Head-Tail or Polygon Method
 This method is used for finding the resultant of several vectors. This is done by
attaching the tail end of each scaled arrow to the tip of the succeeding one, in
any order of succession, beginning at a convenient point. The resultant is
represented by the arrow with its tail end at the starting point and its tip end at
the tip of the last vector added.
2. ANALYTICAL SOLUTION
A. Right triangle concept makes use of the Pythagorean Theorem to solve for the
Resultant and the angular direction. Used for two vectors only.
B. Oblique triangle concept make use of Sine Law and/or Cosine Law to solve for
the Resultant and its direction. Used for two vectors only.
C. The Rectangular Component Method is used for two or more vectors. Each
vector is resolved into its rectangular components (x- and y-), with negatively
directed components taken as negative. The resultant of the x- and
y- components will result into 2 perpendicular vectors, whose resultant can be
solved by Pythagorean Theorem.

PROBLEM SET : SOLUTION OF VECTORS

1. A car goes 5.0 km east, and 3.0 km south. Find its displacement graphically.
2. Two forces are applied to a particle at the origin: 8.0N at 60 degrees in the first
quadrant and 5.5 N at an angle of 45 degrees in the 4th quadrant.
a) Using the parallelogram method, find the net or resultant force on the particle?
b) What third force would make the net or resultant force on the particle zero?
3. Find the resultant of the following forces: F1 = 20 N at 35O , F2 = 15 N at 127O and
F3 = 40 N at 225O Using polygon method.
4. Find graphically the resultant and equilibrant of each of the following force
systems:
a) F1 = 60.0 N , N
F2 = 90.0 N, 50O S of W

F3 = 45.0 N, 45O S of E
F4 =55.0 N, 25O S of E

b) F1 = 180 N , E F2 = 210 N, S 50O W

F3 = 145 N, S 40O E F4 =85.0 N, N 25O E