Department Of Technical Education

Andhra Pradesh
Name : B.Mallaiah
Designation : Senior Lecturer
Branch : Mechanical Engineering
Institute : J.N.Govt Polytechnic, Hyderabad
Year/Semester : III Semester
Subject : Engineering Mechanics
Subject Code : M303
Topic : Statics
Duration : 50 Min
Sub Topic : Statics- summary and problems
Teaching Aids : ppt, Animations, diagrams
Revised by : L.V.Rama Rao

9M303.10 1
 Recap

We have learnt in previous lesson:

• Moment of force
• Types of moments
• Law of moments
• Varignon‘‘s principle of moments
• Parallel forces
• Couple and moment of couple

9M303.10 2
 Objectives
On completion of this period, you would be able to be know
about:

• Key concepts of Statics

• Exercise problems

9M303.10 3
 Key concepts

• Mechanics - The effect

of forces on the bodies.
• Statics - Effect of force
on bodies that are at rest STATICS
KINETICS
MECHANICS
• Kinematics - Motion of DYNAMICS
KINEMATICS
bodies without
considering the forces
• Kinetics - Motion of
bodies by considering
the forces

9M303.10 4
 Key concepts (contd.)

• Force:
– Changes or tends to change the ‘state’ of the body
• System of forces:
– Several forces acting simultaneously upon a body
• Coplanar system of forces:
– Lines of action of forces lie on same plane
• Non-coplanar system of forces:
– Lines of action of forces do not lie on same plane

9M303.10 5
 Key concepts (contd.)
• Resultant:
– Single force having the same effect as that of given
forces
• Parallelogram law of forces
– If two forces acting at a point, be represented in
magnitude and direction by the two adjacent sides of
parallelogram, then, their resultant is represented in
magnitude and direction by the diagonal which
passes through their point of intersection

9M303.10 6
 Key concepts (contd.)

• The magnitude of
resultant is given by the
equation R  P 2  Q 2  2PQCos
• and its direction is given Qsinα
tanθ =
by P+QCosα
• Where P and Q are the
given forces acting
• α is the angle between
‘P’ and ‘Q’
• θ is angle between the
resultant ‘R’ and ‘P’

9M303.10 7
 Key concepts (contd.)

• The resultant of several

concurrent forces acting on a
body may be calculated by
using the equation: R  H 2  V 2
• The direction of resultant, V
  Tan 1
• Where ∑V = Algebraic sum of H
the vertical components.
• ∑H = Algebraic sum of the
horizontal components.

9M303.10 8
 Key concepts (contd.)

• Equilibrium:
– State of rest under the effect of
forces
• Lami’s theorem:
– If three coplanar forces acting at
a point are in equilibrium, each
force will be proportional to the
sine of the angle between the P Q R
other two.  
• sin  sin  sin 
where P, Q and R are the given
forces
• α, β and γ are the angles
between QR, RP and PQ
respectively.

9M303.10 9
 Key concepts (contd.)

• Moment of a force :
– Turning effect produced by the force about a given point.
• Law of moments :
– If a number of coplanar forces acting at a point by in
equilibrium, we have
• Sum of the clock wise moments = sum of the anti-
clockwise moments.

9M303.10 10
 Key concepts (contd.)

• Varignon’s principle (Principle of moments) –

– The algebraic sum of the moments of a given system of
forces, about any point in the plane of the forces is equal to
the moments of their resultant about the same point.

9M303.10 11
 Key concepts (contd.)

• Couple:
– Two equal unlike parallel forces which are not collinear form a
couple. The product of the arm of couple and one of the forces
forming the couple is known as moment of couple.

• Moment of couple = Force * Moment arm.

• The effect of the couple is to cause the rotation of the
body.

9M303.10 12
 Summary

We have discussed so for:

• key concepts of statics

- System of forces
- Parallelogram law of forces
- Resultant
- Equilibrium
- lami‘s theorem
- Couple and moment of couple

9M303.10 13
 Short Questions
1. A smooth ball of weight 240N rests between two
smooth inclined planes which are at 900 to each other
as shown in the fig a. What are the reactive forces at
the points of contact between the ball and the
surfaces. [Ans : 2.8N, 120N]

600 300

Fig a

9M303.10 14
 Short Questions (contd.)
2. Two equal forces 10N each act at right angles of each
other. Find the magnitude and direction of a single force
that produces the same effect. [Ans: 14.14N,450]
3. Two forces 8N and 10N act simultaneously at a point.
Find the resultant force if the angle between them is 700
[Ans: 14.789N].
4. Two Coplanar forces act towards a point with an angle of
450 between them . If their resultant is 100 kN and one of
the forces is 20kN, calculate the other force.
[Ans: 84.85 kN].
9M303.10 15
 Essay Questions
1. Find the magnitude and direction of resultant of two forces
40N and 20N act at a point, if the angle between the
forces is 600. [Ans: 52.9N, 19.110].

2. Find the magnitude of two forces such that if they act at

right angles, their resultant is √10 N. But if they act at 600 ,
their resultant is √13 N. [P=3N, Q=1N].

9M303.10 16
 Essay Questions (contd.)
3. An electric light fixture weighing 15N is hanged from
point C by two strings AC and BC. AC is inclined at 600 to
the horizontal and BC at 450 to the vertical. As shown in
the fig b. Using Lami’s theorem or otherwise determine
the tensions in AC and BC

600 A
B

450
C

(b)

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