Table Of Contents

S.no Topic
1.) Introduction of FBD

2.) Why we draw FBD?

3.) Constructing a free-body force diagram

4.) FBD of bicycle

5.) FBD of pulling sled

6.) FBD of wooden swing

7.) FBD of traffic signal(1st parts)

(2nd part)
8.) FBD of bridge

9.) FBD of football

10.) FBD of rock is falling straight down

 Introduction of FBD

A free body diagram is a pictorial representation often used by physicists and engineers
to analyze the forces acting on a free body. A free body diagram shows all contact and
non-contact forces acting on the body.
A free-body diagram is a sketch of an object of interest with all the surrounding
objects stripped away and all of the forces acting on the body shown.

Why we draw FBD?

The drawing of a free-body diagram is an important step in the solving of mechanics

problems since it helps to visualize all the forces acting on a single object. The net
external force acting on the object must be obtained in order to apply Newton's Second
Law to the motion of the object.

A free-body diagram or isolated-body diagram is useful in problems involving

equilibrium of forces.

Free-body diagrams are useful for setting up standard mechanics problems.

Constructing a free-body force diagram:

* Select an object or group of objects to focus on as the "body", i.e. the system.

* Sketch the body by itself, "free" of its surroundings. The body could be represented by
a single point located at the body's center of mass.

* Draw only those forces that are acting directly on the body. Include both the magnitude
and the direction of these forces.

* Except for rotational problems, you can normally sketch the forces as though they were
acting through a single point at the center of mass of the body. It is useful to draw the
force-vectors with their tails at the center of mass.
* Do not include any forces that the body exerts on it surroundings, they do not act on the
body. However, there is always an equal reaction force acting on the body.

*For a compound body you do not need to include any internal forces acting between the
body's subparts, since these internal forces come in action-reaction pairs which cancel
each other out because of Newton's Third Law.

*Choose a coordinate system and sketch it on the free-body diagram. If you choose one
of the axes to be parallel to the object's acceleration, it can sometimes simplify the
equations you have to solve.

above eg shows that how many forces are acting on body..which is shown by FBD.

There are some practical eg;

1.)

from we see that there are many types of force exerted which are shown by free body
diagram..
forces which are exerted are;
a. wt. of cyclist
b. wt. of bicycle
c. friction force exerted by ground onback tire
d. normal force exerted by ground on first tire
e. normal force exerted by ground on back tire

2.)free body diagram of a pulling sled

forces that exerted on this are.;

The string exerts force on the sled in the direction that the string pulls.
• The Earth exerts a downward force on the sled.
• The ground exerts an upward force on the sled.

FBD is shown of above eg is below.

3. FBD of the wooden swing:
Free Body Diagram of the wooden swing (The box represents the wooden swing, W =
weight of the swing and the parrot, T represents the ropes that are in tension supporting
the weight)

FT1 FT2

Swing

Wt
4.) FBD of the ring at point C:

A B
C

From above diagram we see that there are two tensions & one wt which is vertically
downward direction.& free body diagram of the above picture is as shown below;

FTCA
FTCB

wt

5.)FBD of the traffic light is shown as below;

 Free Body Diagram of the traffic light
(FTCD represents the force of the cables
acting on the light and FW is the weight
acting on the light)

FTCD

Light

FW
6.)FBD of the pin at point A of given image :
 A B

C E
D

Forces on point A are;

We can say that this is the example of truss that is if calculate FBD at pt A then we see
that there are no of forces actinf at pt A

FTAB

FTAC FTAE
FTAD
7.)FBD of football; while person hitting the football

wt

from above we can see that there are 3 types of rxns.

1.wt of football
2.rxn by touching with ground
3.and another rxn when person hitting the football.

8.) FBD of rock is falling straight down throught the air.

From above we see that

there are 3 types of forces

a.friction in upward direction
b.gravity in downward direction
c.contact surface.

That’s all about the FBD from my term paper.

I have given the egs upto level which I give.