ES 11 Notes

Lecture 1: Fundamental Concepts, Force Vectors

Mechanics
o The study of the relationship of forces and their effects on bodies
o Rigid Bodiesstatics and dynamics, Deformable Bodies, Fluids compressible,
incompressible (Show diagram)
Force
o Represents the action of one body or another
o Represented by a vector
o Properties: point of application, magnitude, direction (line of action & sense)
Resultant of Forces
o Single equivalent force having the same effect as the original forces acting on the
particle.
o Finding the resultant of two forces:
Parallelogram Law The diagonal formed by the parallelogram drawn
with the two forces as its sides.
Triangle Rule The third side formed when the two vectors are placed tip
to tail.
Cosine Law and sine law
Will solve the resultant.
Warning: Sine law has ambiguous cases. If possible, use cosine
law.
o Concurrent forces set of forces which pass through the same point. These may
be replaced by a single force.
o Forces are sliding vectors Law of Transmissibility
o Sum of vectors commutative, associative. You can use polygon rule add all
vectors tip to tail, then connect the tail of the first vector to the tip of the last
one
o Vectors may be multiplied by a scalar same direction as P with magnitude
n|P|.

EXAMPLES.

Components of forces
o Resultant can be resolved into components.
o Infinite number of possible components, if two, the magnitude and direction of
the individual components may be determined if at least one component is
completely specified or the line of action of both forces are given.
o Perpendicular components Fx and Fy

EXAMPLES.
 Forces in space
o Rectangular components of a force given magnitude and two angles
o Given magnitude and three absolute angles
o Given magnitude and two points on line of action

EXAMPLES.

Suggested Problems: Beer

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Lecture 2: Equilibrium of Particles

Equilibrium of Particles on a Plane

o Equilibrium resultant of all forces acting on the particle is zero
o Newtons first law is applicable.
o For the body to be considered a particle all forces have to be concurrent
o Cases
TWO FORCES equal and opposite
MORE THAN TWO FORCES the force polygon will be closed.
This a graphical representation
o Mathematical representation
Summation of forces along x = 0, y = 0.
Free Body Diagrams
o Enumerate steps
Equilibrium of a Particle in Space
o Summation of forces along x y and z = 0

Lecture 3: Vector Operations

Vector Product of two vectors
o The line of action of V is perpendicular to the plane containing P and Q.
o The direction of V is obtained from the right hand rule.
o The magnitude of V is the product of the magnitude of P and Q and the sine of
the angle formed by P and Q (which is always between 0 and 180 degrees).
Not commutative
Associative wrt scalar multiplication
Distributive wrt vector addition
o The magnitude of the cross product can be interpreted as the area of the
parallelogram with the two vectors as its sides.
o Determinant
Scalar Product of two vectors
o Commutative
o Distributive
 o Applications
Angle Formed by two given vectors
Scalar Projection of a Vector P on a given Axis
Mixed Triple Product of 3 Vectors
o Scalar triple product
o Note: Interchanging any two of the vectors in the mixed triple product changes
the sign but not the absolute value of the result.
o Volume of the parallelepiped enclosed by the three vectors.

Lecture 4: Moment of a Force

Definition
o Moment of a force is a measure of the tendency of force F to make the rigid
body rotate about a fixed axis perpendicular to the plane of the force F.
Moment of a Force about a point
o Draw diagram
o Two forces F and F are equivalent if and only if they are equal and have equal
moments about a given point O.
o Varignons Theorem
The moment about a given point O of the resultant of several concurrent
forces is equal to the sum of the moments of the various moments about
the same point O.
Moment of a Force about a line
o Measure of the tendency of a force F to make the rigid body rotate about a line.