BENI-SUEF UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Navigation and Science Space Technology

Lecturers and Notes

in
Mechanics1
Mec111

Assoc. Prof. Tahany William Sadak

Tahany William Sadak
2022 - 2023

1
Contents
1- GENERAL PRINCIPLES . . . 3
1/1 Mechanics 3
1/2 Fundamental Concepts
1/3 Newton’s Laws
1/4 Law of Gravitation 12
1/5 Units 8
1/7 Prefixes
1/6 Scalars and Vectors

Accuracy, Limits, and Approximations 13

1/8 Problem Solving in Statics 14
1/9 Chapter Review
2- Force Vectors . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .7
3- Equilibrium of Particles. . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . ..7
4- Force system resultants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .7
5- Equilibrium of rigid body. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
...... 7

2
 1GENERAL PRINCIPLES
1/1 Mechanics: is a branch of physical sciences that is
concerned with the state of rest or motion of bodies that are
subjected to the action of forces.
In general, this subject can be divided into three branches:
 Rigid-body mechanics
 Deformable-body mechanics,
 Fluid mechanics
Rigid-body mechanics is divided into two areas:
1. Static: deals with the equilibrium of bodies, that is, those that
are at rest or move with a constant velocity.
2. Dynamics: is concerned with the accelerated motion of
bodies.

*Note: We can consider static special case of dynamics, in which the acceleration is
zero.

1/2 Fundamental Concepts

Basic Quantities: The basic quantities which used throughout
mechanics are: Space, Length, Time, Mass, and Force.

3
Space: is the geometric region occupied by bodies whose
positions are described by linear and angular measurements
relative to a coordinate system. For three-dimensional problems,
three independent coordinates are needed. For two-dimensional
problems, only two coordinates are required.

Length: is the measured distance from one end to the other of

the longer or longest side of an object

Time: is the measure of the succession of events and is a basic

quantity in dynamics. Time is not directly involved in the
analysis of statics problems.

Mass: is a measure of the inertia of a body, which is its

resistance to a change of velocity. Mass can also be thought of
as the quantity of matter in a body. The mass of a body affects
the gravitational attraction force between it and other bodies.
This force appears in many applications in statics.

Force: force is the action of one body to another. A force tends

to move a body in the direction of its action.

*Note: A force is completely characterized by its magnitude, direction and point of

application.

Idealizations: Models or idealization are used in mechanics in

order to simplify application of theory.

Particle: A particle is a body of negligible dimensions. When a

body is idealized as a particle, the principles of mechanics
reduce to a rather simplified form since 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
load. In most cases the actual deformations occurring in
4
structures, machines, mechanisms, and the like are relatively
small, and rigid-body assumption is suitable for analysis.

Concentrated Force: A concentrated force represents the effect

of a loading which is assumed to act at a point on a body.

1/3 Newton's Three Laws of Motion:

First Law: A particle originally at rest, or
moving in a straight line with constant velocity,
tends to remain in this state provided the particle
is not subjected to an unbalanced force.

Second Law: A particle acted upon by an

unbalanced Force F experiences an
acceleration, a that has the same direction as
the force and magnitude that is directly
proportional to the force. If F is applied to a particle of mass m,
this law may be mathematically as

F = ma … (1-1)

Third Law: The forces of action and

reaction between particles are equal, in
magnitude, opposite in direction and
collinear (they lie in the same direction).

1/4 Newton's Law of Gravitational Attraction:

5
Newton postulated a law governing the gravitational attraction
between any two particles. Stated mathematically:

Where:
F = force of gravitation between the two particles,
G = universal constant of gravitational according experimental
evidence,
= 66.73(10-12) m3 (kg. s2),
m1, m2 = mass of each of the two particles,
and r = distance between the two particles.

Weight: The weight of body is the gravitational force acting on

it. From Eq. 1-2, we can develop an approximate expression for
finding the weight W of a particle having a mass m1 = m. If we
assume the earth to be a nonrotating sphere of constant density
and having a mass m2 = Me, then if r is the distance between the
earth's center and the particle, we have

W = mg … (1-4)
By comparison with F = ma, we can see that g is the
acceleration due to gravity. Since it depends on r, then weight of
a body is not an absolute quantity. Instead, its magnitude is
determined from where the measurement was made.
For most engineering calculations, however, g is determined at
sea level and at latitude of 45o, which is considered the
"standard location".

6
1/5 Units of Measurement
The four basic quantities (length, time, mass, and force) are not
all independent from one another: in fact, they are related by
Newton's second law of motion,
F = ma.
SI Units: The International System (SI) (from French, System
International of units) defines length in meter (m), time in
seconds (s), and mass in kilogram. The unit of force, called a
Newton (N), is derived from F = ma.
Thus 1 Newton is equal to a force required to give 1 kilogram of
mass an acceleration of 1 m/s2 (N=kg.m/s2).
The value of g, in the standard location, was found to be 9.806
65 m/s2; however, for calculations the value g = 9.81 m/s2 will
be used.

U.S. Customary: In the U. S. Customary system of units (or

British System of units) (FPS) length is measured in feet (ft),
time in seconds (s), and force in pounds (lb). The unit of mass,
called a slug, is derived from F = ma. Hence, 1 slug is equal to
the amount of matter accelerated at 1 ft/s2 when acted upon by a
force of 1Ib (slug = Ib.s2/ft). Therefore if measurements are
made at the "standard location" where g = 32.2 ft/s2, then from
Eq. 1-3

7
 Conversion of Units:
In the FPS system, 1 ft =12 in. (inches),
5280 ft = 1 mi (mile),
1000 lb = 1 kip (kilo-pound), and
2000 lb = 1 ton.
TABLE 1-2 Conversion Factors
Unit of Measurement Unit of
Quantity Equals
(FPS) Measurement(SI)
lb 4.448 N
Force =
Mass slug = 14.59 kg
0.304 m
Length ft =

1/6 Prefixes: When a numerical quantity is either very large or

very small, the units used to define its size may be modified by
using a prefix.

TABLE 1-3 Prefixes

Exponential form Prefix SI Symbol

Multiple
1 000 000 000 109 Giga G
1 000 000 106 Mega M
8
 1 000 103 Kilo K
Submultiple
0.001 10-3 Mille m
0.000 001 10-6 micro
0.000 000 001 10-9 Nano N
* The kilogram is the only base unit that is defined with a prefix

Example 1: Convert 2km/h to m/s. How many ft/s is this?

Solution:
Since 1 km = 1000 m and 1 h = 3600 s, the factors of conversion are
arranged in the following order, so that a cancellation of units can be
applied;

9
Example 2: Convert the quantities 300 lb.s and 52 slug/ft3 to
appropriate SI units.
Solution:
Using Table 1-2, 1 lb =4.448 2 N

10
11
1/7 Scalars and Vectors
All physical quantities in engineering mechanics are measured
using either scalars or vectors.

A scalar is a quantity that has magnitude only. Examples

of scalar quantities include length, mass, and time.
Because scalars possess only magnitudes, they are real
numbers that can be positive, negative, or zero.

A vector is a quantity that possesses magnitude and

direction and obeys the parallelogram law for addition.
Examples of vectors encountered in static are force,
position, and moment.

A vector is shown graphically by an

arrow. The length of the arrow
represents the magnitude of the
vector, and angle θ between the
vector and a fixed axis defines the
direction of its line of action. The
head or tip of the arrow indicates
the sense of direction of the vector.

Vector quantities can be further divided into:

1. Free vector is one whose action is not confined to or
associated with a unique line in space. The wind and
moment of a couple are examples of free vectors.
Their effect does not depend on their position.

2. Localized vector has a definite or specific line of

action. Consider the beam shown in figure below.
When the load is placed in the position C at the
center of beam, the reaction of the supports at A and

12
 D on the beam are equal. If the load were moved to
position B, the support at A would carry more of the
load and the support D carry less. In the other words,
the effect of the supports on the beam (the external
effect) depend on the position of the load it carries as
well as the slope, sense, and magnitude of that load.

Vector Operations
Multiplication and Division of a
Vector by a Scalar:
Vector is multiplied by a positive
scalar; its magnitude is increased by
that amount. When multiplied by a
negative scalar it will also change
the directional sense of the vector.

Vector Addition:
All vector quantities obey the parallelogram law of
addition. To illustrate the two "component" vectors A and
B figure below are added to form a "resultant" vector
R = A + B using the following procedure:

• First joint the tails of the components at a point so that it

makes them concurrent
• From the head of B, draw a line parallel to A. Draw
another line from the head of A that is parallel to B. These
tow lines intersect at point P to form the adjacent sides of
a parallelogram.
• The diagonal of this parallelogram that extends to P
forms R, Which

13
 then represents the resultant vector R = A + B.

We can also add B to A using triangle rule which is special

case of the parallelogram law, whereby vector B is added
to vector A in a "head-to tail" fashion, i.e., by connecting
the head of A to the tail of B. The resultant R extends from
the tail of A to the head of B. In a similar manner, R can
also obtained by adding A to B. By comparison, it is seen
that vector addition is commutative; in other words, the
vectors can be added in either, i.e.
R = A + B = B + A (1-6)

As a special case, if the two vectors

A and B are collinear, i.e., both have
the same line of action, the
parallelogram law reduce to an
algebraic or scalar addition
R = A + B.

14
Vector Subtraction: The resultant of the difference
between two vectors A and B of the same type may be
expressed as
R = A – B = A + (-B) (1-7)
Subtraction is therefore defined as special case of
addition, so the rules of vectors addition also apply to
vector subtraction.

Cosine Law and Sine law:

The cosine law and sine law are applicable to compute
angles and sides of a triangle

15
16
17
18
2- Force Vectors

19