Name:_________________

Period:________________
Activity 2.1.3 Free Body Diagrams

Purpose
In 1981 at a Kansas City Hyatt, a walkway holding hundreds of people collapsed
during a party. The collapse killed 114 people and injured 200 others. When building
this walkway, designers and engineers made serious errors that allowed the
collapse to occur under the weight of so many people. In such a design, every part
must be analyzed to ensure that it can perform its intended function without failing.
One planning tool that engineers can use is the free body diagram. Free body
diagrams show all forces that act upon a body or part. The information identified in a
free body diagram can be used to determine whether a part is adequate.

Procedure Steps to Complete a FBD

In this activity you will practice creating free body
1. Sketch the Object Isolated
diagrams (FBD) in order to evaluate all of the forces
interacting with those objects. 2. Sketch the forces on the object

NORMAL- Supporting

1. Examine the image below. Draw a free body diagram APPLIED- The Object and
for both objects. Use the notation in the image as objects on top of it
subscripts when labeling forces, samples are provided 3. Label forces
below.
4. Label Dimensions (if needed)
including angles
Wfishbowl
Fstand Wstand
FN

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Fishbowl Stand
Hint- Remember to show the weight of the
fishbowl on the stand

Fish
bowl

2. Examine the image below. Draw a free body diagram for the four labeled parts in the
image. Use the notation in the image as subscripts when labeling forces.

Fstand

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Log 1 Log 2 FBD
Fstand

FLog 2 FLog 1

WLog 1 FLog 3

Fstand WLog 2

Log
1

Log 3 FBD Stand FBD

Wstand FLog 3
Fstand Fstand
FN FLog 1
FLog 2

WLog 3

Log
3

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3. Examine the image below. Draw a free body diagram for the five labeled parts in
the image. Use the notation in the image as subscripts when labeling forces.

Ring 1 Ring 2
RFbar RFbar

Fcable2

Fcable1

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Cable 1 Cable 2
Fring1 Fring2
FStoplight

FStoplight

Stoplight
Fcable1

Fcable2

WStoplight

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Conclusion
1. Why is it important to create free body diagrams?

2. Sketch a free body diagram of the person sitting in a car seat as shown below.
Which force arrows do you think would be the largest? Why? Hint- Use the
arrows below, they are scaled appropriately to represent the forces

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