MECHANICAL ENGINEERING LAB 3 (MOMENT)

UNIVERISITI KUALA LUMPUR

MALAYSIA FRANCE INSTITUTE

Objective
To demonstrate the equilibrium of moments.
Abstract
The objective of this experiment is to identified the condition of body in order to stay at
equilibrium. One of the condition is the summation of moment in the horizontal and vertical
component must be equal to zero. For this experiment we have varies the total weight on the both
side of load with a different distance to determined the equilibrium position of the weight hanger.
So we can see the relationship between the distance of load, weight of load and the value of
moment.
Introduction
In order for a body to be in equilibrium state, first condition of equilibrium stated that the
horizontal and vertical components of all the forces acting on the body must add up to zero. The
moment of force or torque is a measure of tendency to cause rotation. It is defined as a product of
magnitude of the force and the perpendicular distance from the axis of the rotational to the action
of the forces.

Forces acting on the beam can provide the effect of turning about an axis if it does not intersect
or is parallel to the axis. Consider the force in figure, which acts on a cantilevered beam and is
located a distance d from the vertical axis of the pipe.

Figure 1: force acting on the beam

Three perpendicular force components are F1 , F2, and F3 . It is seen that only F1 tends to rotate
the cantilevered beam and pipe about the axis F2 and F3 does not causes the cantilevered beam
to turn about this axis since F2 intersects this axis and F3 is parallel to it. The rotational effect of
F1 is called the moment of force, Mo. Mo = F1 x d where d is referred to as the moment arm of
perpendicular distance from the axis at point o the line of the action of the force. Units of
moment magnitude consist of force times distance, N.m or kg.m.
The direction of Mo consists of three dimensions which can be signified using the right hand
rule. The fingers of the right hand are curled such that they follow rotation as caused by the
force acting about the axis. The thumb then points in the direction of moment vector along
moment axis. A 2 dimensional view is given on figure 2.

Figure 2: definition of torque and moment

When determining the moment of force about a point, it is often convenient to use the
Varignons theorem since it was originally developed by French mathematician Varignon and it
is also known as the principle of moments. This theorem states the moment of a force about a
point is equal to the sum of all moments of the forces components about the point.
If the sum of all the forces and all the moments taken about point 0 is zero, the body is said to be
in statical equilibrium, since physically this situation maintains a balance of both force and
moment. Three scalar equations that express this condition are:
Fx = 0
Fy = 0
Mo = 0
Here Fx and Fy represent the algebraic sums of the x and y components of all the forces
acting on the body, and Mo represents the algebraic sums of the moments of all the force
components about an axis perpendicular to the x-y plane and passing trough point o. Simple
moment apparatus are demonstrate clockwise and counter clockwise moments of all forces
acting on the simple beam in equilibrium as shown in figure below. By convention, counter
clockwise moments are given a negative sign.

Figure 3: beam in equilibrium

Figure 4: free body diagram of simple moment apparatus

Total Force;

Fy = 0
RO W1 W2 W3 W4 = 0

Total Moments; MO = 0
W1d1 W2d2 W3d3 W4d4 = 0
W1d1+ W1d1 = W1d1+ W1d1
MO clockwise = MO counter clockwise

Materials and Apparatus

a) Load hangers
b) Weights
c) Fulcrum
d) Beam with scale
Procedure
Pre-experiment procedure
a) The safety instructions given before conducting the experiment is read.
b) The theory for flow measurement before lab session is read and understood.
c) Make sure that the apparatus are in good condition
Procedure
a) 4N weight on the load hanger 1 and load hanger 3 with distance 100mm and 50mm
are placed.
b) 2N weight on the load hanger 4 and move this load hanger is placed until the beam is
in equilibrium. The distance is recorded as d3.
c) 4N weight on the load hanger 1 and load hanger 3 with distance 100 and 25 mm are
placed, respectively.
d) 2N weight on the load hanger 4 and more this load hanger is placed until the beam is
in equilibrium. The distance is recorded as d3.
e) Step (a) until (d) with different weights and distances are repeated.

Result

Positions of load hangers and weights

Left hand side of the

Counter

Right hand side of

Clockwise

Percent

pin

clockwise

the pin

moment

difference

( N.mm)

(%)

W1

D1

W2

D2

(N) (mm) (N) (mm)

moment

W3

D3

(N.mm)

(N)

(mm)

100

50

600

243

486

19.00

100

25

500

205

410

18.00

100

50

600

170

510

15.00

100

25

500

145

435

13.00

100

50

600

138

552

8.00

100

25

500

120

480

4.00

100

50

650

190

570

12.30

100

25

525

155

465

11.43

150

50

800

235

705

11.88

150

25

700

202

606

13.43

Discussion
a) The moment for counter clockwise and clockwise moments are calculated as shown by
equation:
Mo (N.mm) = Total Force (N) x distance (mm)
No.

Counter clockwise moment

Clockwise moment

4(100) + 4(50) = 600 N.mm

2(243) = 486 N.mm

4(100) + 4(25) = 500 N.mm

2(205) = 410 N.mm

4(100) + 4(50) = 600 N.mm

3(170) = 510 N.mm

4(100) + 4(25) = 500 N.mm

3(145) = 435 N.mm

4(100) + 4(50) = 600 N.mm

4(138) = 552 N.mm

4(100) + 4(25) = 500 N.mm

4(120) = 480 N.mm

4(100) + 5(25) = 650 N.mm

3(190) = 570 N.mm

4(100) + 5(25) = 525 N.mm

3(155) = 465 N.mm

4(150) + 4(25) = 800 N.mm

3(235) = 705 N.mm

10

4(150) + 4(25) = 700 N.mm

3(202) = 606 N.mm

b) Based on the result the value of counter clock wise moment is ranging from 500 N.mm to 800
N.mm while form clockwise moment the value is ranging from 410 N.mm to 705 N.mm. In
general we can see that although it should be the same but from our experiment, the value
counter clockwise moment is slightly higher that clockwise moment due to some errors. The
percent different is ranging between 4 % to 19 % which is quite high. The theoretical theory that
we should obtained is the value of counter clockwise moment and clockwise is the same because
of one side represent the positive value while the other one represent the negative value, so in
order to obtained equilibrium, the two value must be same.
Mo counter clockwise = Mo clockwise

c) The difference in the value of moment for clockwise and counterclockwise is due to the some
errors that we do during the experiment. The main error comes from the human itself when
taking the distance of weight. The eyes maybe are not perpendicular to the point that leads to the
parallax error. The weight of the load that we used also are not actually accurate because the
weight is measured after its has been manufactured. And now after it has been used for a long
time maybe the weight has change because of many factor such as fatigue and crack. Lack of
protractor also lead to some error for this experiment because we could not measure whether the
fulcrum and beam is perpendicular to each other or not after adding the weight.
Conclusion
The moment of force is the same for both side whether we use clockwise or counter clockwise
and it can be measured by using simple moment experiment.
References
Hibbeler R. C..and Yap K. B (2012). Mechanics for engineers staticss. 13th Ed. Pearson.