Engineering Mechanics: Statics

MAE 001

Chapter 1
Introduction
Contents
What is Mechanics?
Fundamental Concepts
Fundamental Principles
Systems of Units
Method of Problem Solution
Numerical Accuracy

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What is Mechanics?

• Mechanics is the science which describes and predicts the conditions of

rest or motion of bodies under the action of forces.

• Categories of Mechanics: ➢ This course studies rigid-body mechanics

- Rigid bodies since it is a basic requirement for the study of
- Statics the mechanics of deformable bodies and the
- Dynamics mechanics of fluid.
- Deformable bodies ➢ Actual structures and machines deform under
- Fluids the loads to which they are subjected. But these
deformations are usually small and do not affect
the conditions of equilibrium or motion of the
structure under consideration.

• Mechanics is an applied science - it is not an abstract or pure science

and does not have the empiricism found in other engineering sciences.

• Mechanics is the foundation of most engineering sciences and is an

indispensable prerequisite to their study.
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Fundamental Concepts
The basic concepts used in mechanics are space, time, mass, and force.
• Space - associated with the notion of the position of a point given in
terms of three coordinates measured from a reference point or origin.

• Time - definition of an event requires specification of the time and

position at which it occurred.
• Mass - used to characterize and compare bodies, e.g., response to
earth’s gravitational attraction and resistance to changes in translational
motion.
• Force - represents the action of one body on another. A force is
characterized by its point of application, magnitude, and direction, i.e., a
force is a vector quantity.
In Newtonian Mechanics, space, time, and mass are absolute concepts,
independent of each other. Force, however, is not independent of the other
three. The force acting on a body is related to the mass of the body and
the variation of its velocity with time.
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 Idealizations

Models or idealizations are used in mechanics in order to simplify

application of the theory.

• Particle. A particle has a mass, but a size that can be neglected. When
a body is idealized as a particle, the geometry of the body will not be
involved in the analysis of the problem.

• Rigid Body. A rigid body can be considered as a combination of a large

number of particles in which all the particles remain at a fixed distance from
one another, both before and after applying a load → the body’s shape
does not change when a load is applied.

• Concentrated Force. A concentrated force represents the effect of a

loading which is assumed to act at a point on a body → a load can be
represented by a concentrated force, provided the area over which the
load is applied is very small compared to the overall size of the body.

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Fundamental Principles

The study of elementary mechanics rests on six fundamental principles

based on experimental evidence.
• Parallelogram Law
• Principle of Transmissibility
• Newton’s First Law
• Newton’s Second Law
• Newton’s Third Law
• Newton’s Law of Gravitation

It will then be shown that Newton’s first law is a particular case of Newton’s
second law (Sec. 12.2) and that the principle of transmissibility could be
derived from the other principles and thus eliminated.
Other prinples are independent which cannot be derived mathematically
from each other or from any other elementary physical principle.

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 Fundamental Principles
• Parallelogram Law for the Addition of Forces
Two forces acting on a particle may be
replaced by a single force, called their
resultant, obtained by drawing the
diagonal of the parallelogram which has
• Parallelogram Law sides equal to the given forces.

• Principle of Transmissibility
The conditions of equilibrium or motion of a
rigid body will remain unchanged if a force
acting at a given point of the rigid body is
replaced by a force of the same magnitude
and same direction, but acting at a different
• Principle of Transmissibility point, provided that the two forces have the
same line of action.
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Fundamental Principles
• Newton’s First Law: If the resultant force on
a particle is zero, the particle will remain at
rest or continue to move in a straight line.
• Newton’s Second Law: A particle will have
an acceleration proportional to a nonzero
resultant applied force.
 
Newton’s Second Law F = ma (1.1)
• Newton’s Third Law: The forces of action
and reaction between two particles have the
same magnitude and line of action with
opposite sense.

• Newton’s Law of Gravitation: Two particles

are attracted with equal and opposite forces,
Mm (1.2)
F =G 2
r
GM
Newton’s Law of Gravitation For the earth : r R, g = 2 → W = mg
R
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Fundamental Principles
• Newton’s Law of Gravitation: Two particles of mass M F and − F
and m are attracted with equal and opposite forces, Mm (1.2)
which have magnitude: F =G 2
r
r = distance between the two particles
G =universal constant called the constant of gravitation
• In the case of the attraction of the earth on a particle located on its
surface, the force F exerted by the earth on the particle is then defined as
the weight W of the particle.
GM
• Taking M equal to the mass of the earth, m equal to the g = 2 (1.3)
mass of the particle, and r equal to the radius R of the R
earth, and introducing the constant g as: → F = mg = W
• Since the earth is not truly spherical. The value of g therefore varies with the
position and the elevation of the point considered.
• In most engineering computations to assume that g equals 9.81 m/s2 or 32.2 ft/s2.

• The magnitude W of the weight of a particle of mass m may W = mg (1.4)

be expressed as (unit of g must be as acceleration F=ma)
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Systems of Units
• The four fundamental concepts introduced in the preceding section are
associated the kinetic units: the units of length, time, mass, and force.

• Three of the kinetic units, referred to as basic units, may be defined arbitrarily. The
fourth unit, referred to as a derived unit, must have a definition compatible with

Newton’s 2nd Law: F = ma (1.1)
• Kinetic units selected in this way are said to form a system of units.
• International System of Units (SI): • U.S. Customary Units:
The basic units: length, time, and mass The basic units are length, time, and
which are arbitrarily defined as the meter force which are arbitrarily defined as the
(m), second (s), and kilogram (kg). foot (ft), second (s), and pound (lb).
• Force is the derived unit, which is • Mass is the derived unit, which is
defined as the newton (N) defined as slug
 m m=
F
→1slug =
1lb
F = ma →1N = (1kg ) 1 2  a 1ft s 2
 s 
• The SI units form an absolute system of • The U.S. customary units form a
units since three base units chosen are gravitational system of units because the
independent of the location where pound defined by the weight of a platinum
measurements are made. standard which dependence upon the
gravitational attraction of the earth. 1 - 10
Units conversion from one system of units to another
• There are many instances when an engineer wishes to convert into SI
units a numerical result obtained in U.S. customary units or vice versa.
• Because the unit of time is the same in both systems, only two kinetic
base units need be converted.
• Since all other kinetic units can be derived from these base units, only two
conversion factors need be remembered.
Units of Length. 1 ft = 0.3048m; 1in = 25.4mm
Units of Force. 1lb = 4.448 N
Units of Mass. 1slug = 14.59kg
• Multiples and submultiples of the fundamental SI units obtained through
the use of the prefixes.
• The multiples and submultiples of the units of length, mass, and force most
frequently used in engineering are, respectively, the kilometer (km) and the
millimeter (mm); the megagram† (Mg) and the gram (g); and
the kilonewton (kN)
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Systems of Units

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Method of Problem Solution
• Once the problem has been clearly stated, the solution must be based on
the six fundamental principles stated or on theorems derived from them.
Every step taken must be justified on that basis.
• After an answer has been obtained, it should be checked. If not satisfied
with the result obtained → check the formulation of the problem, the validity
of the methods used for its solution, and the accuracy of computations.
• Problem Statement: should be clear and precise, contain the given data
and indicate what information is required.
• Free-Body diagram: drawn for all bodies involved, indicating clearly the
forces acting on each body.
• Fundamental principles: used to write equations expressing the conditions
of rest or motion of the bodies considered.
• Solution Check:
➢ Mistakes in reasoning can often be detected by checking the units.
➢ Errors in computation will usually be found by substituting the numerical
values obtained into an equation which has not yet been used and verifying
that the equation is satisfied.
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Method of Problem Solution

• Problem Statement:
• Solution Check:
Includes given data, specification
- Test for errors in reasoning by
of what is to be determined, and
verifying that the units of the compute
a figure showing all quantities
results are correct,
involved.
- test for errors in computation by
substituting given data and computed
• Free-Body Diagrams: results into previously unused equations
Create separate diagrams for based on the six principles,
each of the bodies involved with a - always apply experience and physical
clear indication of all forces acting intuition to assess whether results seem
on each body. “reasonable”.
• Fundamental Principles:
The six fundamental principles are
applied to express the conditions
of rest or motion of each body.
The rules of algebra are applied to
solve the equations for the
unknown quantities.
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Numerical Accuracy
• The accuracy of a solution depends on:
1) accuracy of the given data
2) accuracy of the computations performed.
The solution cannot be more accurate than the less accurate of these two items.
• The use of hand calculators and computers generally makes the accuracy of
the computations much greater than the accuracy of the data. Hence, the
solution accuracy is usually limited by the data accuracy.

• As a general rule for engineering problems, the data are seldom known with an
accuracy greater than 0.2%.
• For Ex., if the loading of a bridge is known to be 75,000 lb with a possible
error of 100 lb either way, the relative error which measures the degree of
accuracy of the data is 100 lb/75,000 lb=0.0013=0.13 percent.
• In computing the reaction at one of the bridge supports, it would then be
meaningless to record it as 14,322 lb. The accuracy of the solution cannot be
greater than 0.13 percent, no matter how accurate the computations are, and
the possible error in the answer may be as large as (0.13/100)(14,322 lb) <
20 lb. The answer should be properly recorded as 14,320±20 lb.
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Signifficant Figures
Signifficant Figures and Rounding off Numbers
• The number of significant figures contained in any number determines the
accuracy of the number. Usually, three or four significant figures are
necessary for engineering accuracy.
• The number of significant figures is usually inferred by the number of
figures given except for leading zeros.
• For instance, the number 4981 contains four significant figures. The
numbers 706, 3.14, and 0.002 19 contain three significant figures.
Never report a number of significant figures of a calculation any greater than the
smallest number of significant figures of the numbers used for the calculation.
Rounding off Numbers
• Rounding off a number is necessary so that the accuracy of the result will
be the same as that of the problem data.
• As a general rule, any numerical figure ending in a number greater than
five is rounded up and a number less than five is not rounded up:
• If 3.5587 is to be rounded off to three significant figures → 3.56; 0.5896 →
0.590 and 9.3866 becomes 9.39.
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Engineering Notation
Engineering Notation
• If zeros occur at the end of a whole number, it may be unclear as to
how many significant figures the number represents.
• For example, 23 400 might have three (234), four (2340), or five (23
400) significant figures.
To avoid these ambiguities, we will use engineering notation to report
a result.
• This requires that numbers be rounded off to the appropriate number of
significant digits and then expressed in multiples of (10). For instance, if
23 400 has five significant figures, it is written as 23.400(103), but if it
has only three significant figures, it is written as 23.4(103).
• If zeros occur at the beginning of a number that is less than one, then
the zeros are not significant. For example, 0.008 21 has three
significant figures. Using engineering notation, this number is expressed
as 8.21(10–3). Likewise, 0.000 582 can be expressed as 0.582(10–3) or
582(10–6).

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EXAMPLE 1.1

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EXAMPLE 1.2

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EXAMPLE 1.3

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EXAMPLE 1.3

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Problems

A- Questions
1. What is the mechanics? What are the categories of
mechanics?
2. Define the fundamental concepts used in mechanics.
3. What fundamental principles on which the study of
mechanics is based on?
4. What are the kinetic units? Explain the system of units
5. What are the significant Figures? How to round off
numbers?

B- Problem 1.1 -1.21 Russell C. Hibbeler, “Engineering

Mechanics: Statics”, 12th edition, Prentice Hall, 2008.

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 Problems
Problem 1.1 -1.21 Russell C. Hibbeler, “Engineering Mechanics: Statics”,
12th edition, Prentice Hall, 2008.

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Problems
Problem 1.1 -1.21 Russell C. Hibbeler, “Engineering Mechanics: Statics”, 12th
edition, Prentice Hall, 2008.

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