B273 | STATICS OF RIGID BODIES

LECTURE 1
PRINCIPLES OF STATICS

o INTRODUCTION, FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS

o FORCE SYSTEMS
o AXIOMS OF MECHANICS
o INTRODUCTION TO FREE BODY DIAGRAMS
o SCALAR AND VECTOR QUANTITIES
o PARALLELOGRAM LAW, TRIANGLE LAW

1.1 INTRODUCTION, FUDAMENTAL CONCEPTS AND DEFINITION

Engineering Mechanics may be defined as the science which considers the effects of
forces on rigid bodies.

Statics is the study of bodies and structures that are in equilibrium. For a body to be
in equilibrium, there must be no net force acting on it. In addition, there must be no
net torque or twisting acting on it.

Rigid body is a solid body in which deformation is zero or so small it can be neglected.
The distance between any two given points on a rigid body remains constant in time
regardless of external forces or moments exerted on it. A rigid body is usually considered
as a continuous distribution of mass.

A Rigid body is defined as a definite amount of matter the parts of which are fixed in
position relative to each other.

Force may be defined as that which changes or tends to change the state of motion of
a body.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A FORCE
1. Magnitude
2. Position of its line of action
3. Direction (or sense) in which the force acts along its lie of action

The principle of transmissibility of a force states that the external effect of a force on a
body is the same for all points of application along its line of action.

1.2 FORCE SYSTEMS

A force system is any arrangement where two or more forces act on a body or on a
group of related bodies. When the lines of action of all the forces in a force system lie in
one plane, they are referred to as being coplanar; otherwise, they are non-coplanar.

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CLASSIFICATION OF FORCE SYSTEM ACCORDING TO THEIR LINE OF ACTION

1. Forces whose lines of action pass through a common point are called
concurrent force system.
2. Those in which the lines of action are parallel are called parallel force system.
3. Those in which the lines of action neither are parallel nor intersect in a
common point are known as non-concurrent force system.

1.3 AXIOMS OF MECHANICS

The principles of mechanics are postulated upon several more or less self-evident facts
which cannot be proved mathematically but can only be demonstrated to be true. We
shall call these facts the fundamental axioms of mechanics.

1. Parallelogram Law. The resultant of two forces is the diagonal of the

parallelogram formed on the vectors of these forces.
2. Two forces in equilibrium only when equal in magnitude, opposite in
direction, and collinear in action.
3. A set of forces in equilibrium may be added to any system of forces without
changing the effect of the original system.
4. Action and reaction forces are equal but oppositely directed.

1.4 INTRODUCTION TO FREE BODY DIAGRAMS

A sketch of the isolated body which shows only the forces acting upon the body is
defined as a free-body diagram.

The forces acting on the free body are the action forces, also called the applied forces.

1.5 VECTOR QUANTITIES

Scalar quantities are quantities which possess magnitude only and can be added
arithmetically.

Vector quantities are quantities which possess both magnitude and direction and can
be combined only by geometric addition, usually called vector addition. A vector
quantity can be represented geometrically by drawing line acting in the direction of the
quantity. An arrow is placed on the line, usually at the end, to denote the sense of the
direction.

1.6 PARALLELOGRAM LAW

Parallelogram law is the resultant of two forces is the

diagonal of the parallelogram formed on the vectors of
these forces.

1. Place both vectors, 𝑢⃗ and 𝑣 at the same initial

point.
2. Draw the resulting parallelogram.
3. The diagonal of the parallelogram is the resultant
vector 𝑹 = 𝒖
⃗ +𝒗⃗.

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1.7 TRIANGLE LAW

Triangle law of vector addition states that when two

vectors are represented as two sides of the triangle with
the order of magnitude and direction, then the third
side of the triangle represents the magnitude and
direction of the resultant vector.

If two forces are represented by their free vectors

placed tip to tail, their resultant being from the tail of
the 1st vector to the tip of the last vector.
1. Place the vectors with the head of the
previous vector 𝑢 ⃗ connected to the tail
of the successive vector 𝑣 .
2. The resultant vector 𝑹 = 𝒖 ⃗ +𝒗⃗ is formed by connecting the tail of the 1st
vector to the head of the last vector.

FORMULA USED FOR PARALLELOGRAM AND TRIANGLE LAW

o Sine Law
𝒂 𝒃 𝒄
= =
𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝑨 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝑩 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝑪

o Cosine Law
𝒂𝟐 = 𝒃𝟐 + 𝒄𝟐 − 𝟐𝒃𝒄𝒄𝒐𝒔𝑨
𝒃𝟐 = 𝒂𝟐 + 𝒄𝟐 − 𝟐𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒐𝒔𝑩
𝒄𝟐 = 𝒂𝟐 + 𝒃𝟐 − 𝟐𝒂𝒃𝒄𝒐𝒔𝑪

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Reference:
Singer, Ferdinand L., Engineering Mechanics, Second Edition, A Harper International
Edition

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