Republic of the Philippines

NORTHERN ILOILO STATE UNIVERSITY

Estancia, Iloilo
Reg. No. 97Q19783

STATICS OF RIGID BODIES

ES 211: Statics of Rigid Bodies Eng’r. John Paul G. Arceo
NISU-BSME 2 Instructor 1
Time Allotment: 3 hour/week
2 MODULE 2.1/ FORCE VECTORS

2.1-1 VECTOR ADDITION OF FORCES

Experimental evidence has shown that a force is a vector quantity since it has
a specified magnitude, direction, and sense and it adds according to the
parallelogram law. Two common problems in statics involve either finding the
resultant force, knowing its components, or resolving a known force into two
components. We will now describe how each of these problems is solved using the
parallelogram law.

Finding a Resultant Force. The two component

forces F1 and F2 acting on the pin in Fig. 2–7 a
can be added together to form the resultant
force FR = F1 + F2 , as shown in Fig. 2–7 b . From
this construction, or using the triangle rule, Fig.
2–7 c , we can apply the law of cosines or the
law of sines to the triangle in order to obtain the
magnitude of the resultant force and its
direction.

Finding the Components of a Force. Sometimes it is necessary to resolve a force

into two components in order to study its pulling or pushing effect in two specific
directions. For example, in Fig. 2–8 a , F is to be resolved into two components
along the two members, defined by the u and v axes. In order to determine the
magnitude of each component, a parallelogram is constructed first, by drawing
lines starting from the tip of F , one line parallel to u , and the other line parallel to
 LESSON 2.1-1: VECTOR ADDITION OF FORCES 3

v . These lines then intersect with the v and u axes,

forming a parallelogram. The force components Fu
and Fv are then established by simply joining the tail
of F to the intersection points on the u and v axes,
Fig. 2–8 b . This parallelogram can then be reduced
to a triangle, which represents the triangle rule, Fig.
2–8 c . From this, the law of sines can then be applied
to determine the unknown magnitudes of the
components.

Addition of Several Forces. If more than

two forces are to be added, successive
applications of the parallelogram law can
be carried out in order to obtain the
resultant force. For example, if three
forces F1 , F2 , F3 act at a point O , Fig. 2–
9 , the resultant of any two of the forces
is found, say, F1 + F2 —and then this
resultant is added to the third force,
yielding the resultant of all three forces;
i.e., FR = ( F1 + F2 ) + F3 . Using the
parallelogram law to add more than two
forces, as shown here, often requires
extensive geometric and trigonometric
calculation to determine the numerical
values for the magnitude and direction of
the resultant.
4 MODULE 2.1/ FORCE VECTORS
LESSON 2.1-1: VECTOR ADDITION OF FORCES 5
6 MODULE 2.1/ FORCE VECTORS

2.1-2 ADDITION OF A SYSTEM OF COPLANAR FORCES

When a force is resolved into two components along the x and y axes, the
components are then called rectangular components. For analytical work we can
represent these components in one of two ways, using either scalar notation or
Cartesian vector notation.

Scalar Notation. The rectangular components of force

F shown in Fig. 2–15 a are found using the
parallelogram law, so that F = Fx + Fy. Because these
components form a right triangle, they can be
determined from

Instead of using the angle 𝜃, however, the

direction of F can also be defined using a small “slope”
triangle, as in the example shown in Fig. 2–15 b. Since
this triangle and the larger shaded triangle are similar,
the proportional length of the sides gives

Here the y component is a negative scalar since Fy is directed along the

negative y axis.
 LESSON 2.1-1: VECTOR ADDITION OF FORCES 7

Cartesian Vector Notation. It is also possible to

represent the x and y components of a force in terms
of Cartesian unit vectors i and j. They are called unit
vectors because they have a dimensionless
magnitude of 1, and so they can be used to
designate the directions of the x and y axes,
respectively, Fig. 2–16.

Since the magnitude of each component of F is always a positive quantity,

which is represented by the (positive) scalars Fx and Fy, then we can express F as a
Cartesian vector,

Coplanar Force Resultants. We can

use either of the two methods just
described to determine the resultant
of several coplanar forces. To do this,
each force is first resolved into its x
and y components, and then the
respective components are added
using scalar algebra since they are
collinear. The resultant force is then
formed by adding the resultant
components using the parallelogram
law. For example, consider the three
concurrent forces in Fig. 2–17 a,
which have x and y components
shown in Fig. 2–17 b. Using Cartesian
vector notation, each force is first
represented as a Cartesian vector, i.e.,
8 MODULE 2.1/ FORCE VECTORS

The vector resultant is therefore

If scalar notation is used, then from Fig. 2–17 b, we have

These are the same results as the i and j components of FR determined above.

We can represent the components of the resultant force of any number of

coplanar forces symbolically by the algebraic sum of the x and y components of all
the forces, i.e.,

Once these components are determined,

they may be sketched along the x and y axes with
their proper sense of direction, and the resultant
force can be determined from vector addition, as
shown in Fig. 2–17c. From this sketch, the
magnitude of FR is then found from the
Pythagorean theorem; that is,

Also, the angle 𝜃, which specifies the direction of the resultant force, is
determined from trigonometry:

The above concepts are illustrated numerically in the examples which follow.
LESSON 2.1-1: VECTOR ADDITION OF FORCES 9
10 MODULE 2.1/ FORCE VECTORS
 LESSON 2.1-3: CARTESIAN VECTORS 11

2.1-3 CARTESIAN VECTORS

The operations of vector algebra, when applied to solving problems in three

dimensions, are greatly simplified if the vectors are first represented in Cartesian
vector form. In this section we will present a general method for doing this; then in
the next section we will use this method for finding the resultant force of a system
of concurrent forces.

Right-Handed Coordinate System. We will use a

righthanded coordinate system to develop the
theory of vector algebra that follows. A rectangular
coordinate system is said to be right-handed if the
thumb of the right hand points in the direction of
the positive z axis when the right-hand fingers are
curled about this axis and directed from the
positive x towards the positive y axis, Fig. 2–21.

Rectangular Components of a Vector. A vector A

may have one, two, or three rectangular
components along the x, y, z coordinate axes,
depending on how the vector is oriented relative
to the axes. In general, though, when A is directed
within an octant of the x, y, z frame, Fig. 2–22 , then
by two successive applications of the
parallelogram law, we may resolve the vector into
components as A = A’ + Az and then A’ = Ax + Ay .
Combining these equations, to eliminate A’, A is
represented by the vector sum of its three
rectangular components,

Cartesian Unit Vectors. In three dimensions, the set of Cartesian unit vectors, i , j ,
k, is used to designate the directions of the x, y, z axes, respectively. As stated in
Sec. 2.1-2 , the sense (or arrowhead) of these vectors will be represented
12 MODULE 2.1/ FORCE VECTORS

analytically by a plus or minus sign, depending on

whether they are directed along the positive or
negative x, y, or z axes. The positive Cartesian unit
vectors are shown in Fig. 2–23.
Cartesian Vector Representation. Since the three
components of A in Eq. 2–2 act in the positive i , j ,
and k directions, Fig. 2–24 , we can write A in
Cartesian vector form as

There is a distinct advantage to writing

vectors in this manner. Separating the magnitude
and direction of each component vector will
simplify the operations of vector algebra,
particularly in three dimensions.

Magnitude of a Cartesian Vector. It is always

possible to obtain the magnitude of A provided it
is expressed in Cartesian vector form. As shown in
Fig. 2–25, from the blue right triangle, A =

√A’2 + 𝐴𝑧, 2 , and from the gray right triangle, A’

=√𝐴𝑥 2 + 𝐴𝑦 2 . Combining these equations to

eliminate A’ yields

Hence, the magnitude of A is equal to the

positive square root of the sum of the squares of its
components.

Direction of a Cartesian Vector. We will define the direction of A by the coordinate

direction angles 𝛼 (alpha), 𝛽 (beta), and 𝛾 (gamma), measured between the tail of
A and the positive x, y, z axes provided they are located at the tail of A , Fig. 2–26 .
Note that regardless of where A is directed, each of these angles will be between
0° and 180°.
 LESSON 2.1-3: CARTESIAN VECTORS 13

To determine 𝛼, 𝛽, and 𝛾, consider the

projection of A onto the x, y, z axes, Fig. 2–27 .
Referring to the blue colored right triangles shown
in each figure, we have

These numbers are known as the direction

cosines of A . Once they have been obtained, the
coordinate direction angles 𝛼, 𝛽, and 𝛾, can then
be determined from the inverse cosines.

An easy way of obtaining these direction cosines is to form a unit vector uA

in the direction of A, Fig. 2–26. If A is expressed in Cartesian vector form, A = Axi +
Ayj + Azk , then uA will have a magnitude of one and be dimensionless provided A is
divided by its magnitude, i.e.,

where A = √𝐴𝑥 2 + 𝐴𝑦 2 + 𝐴𝑧 2 . By comparison with Eqs. 2–5 , it is seen that the i,

j , k components of uA represent the direction cosines of A , i.e.,
14 MODULE 2.1/ FORCE VECTORS

Since the magnitude of a vector is equal to the positive square root of the
sum of the squares of the magnitudes of its components, and uA has a magnitude
of one, then from the above equation an important relation among the direction
cosines can be formulated as

Here we can see that if only two of the coordinate angles are known, the
third angle can be found using this equation.

Finally, if the magnitude and coordinate direction angles of A are known,

then A may be expressed in Cartesian vector form as

Sometimes, the direction of A can be

specified using two angles, 𝜃 and 𝜙 (phi), such as
shown in Fig. 2–28. The components of A can then
be determined by applying trigonometry first to
the blue right triangle, which yields

Now applying trigonometry to the gray

shaded right triangle,

Therefore, A written in Cartesian vector form becomes

 LESSON 2.1-4: ADDITION OF CARTESIAN VECTORS 15

2.1-4 ADDITION OF CARTESIAN VECTORS

The addition (or subtraction) of two or more

vectors is greatly simplified if the vectors are
expressed in terms of their Cartesian components.
For example, if A = Axi + Ayj + Azk and B = Bxi + Byj +
Bzk, Fig. 2–29, then the resultant vector, R, has
components which are the scalar sums of the i , j ,
k components of A and B , i.e.,

If this is generalized and applied to a system

of several concurrent forces, then the force
resultant is the vector sum of all the forces in the
system and can be written as

Here 𝛴Fx , 𝛴Fy , and 𝛴Fz represent the algebraic sums of the respective x, y, z
or i , j , k components of each force in the system.
16 MODULE 2.1/ FORCE VECTORS
LESSON 2.1-4: ADDITION OF CARTESIAN VECTORS 17
18 MODULE 2.1/ FORCE VECTORS

2.1-5 POSITION VECTORS

In this section we will introduce the concept of a position vector. It will be

shown that this vector is of importance in formulating a Cartesian force vector
directed between two points in space.

x , y , z Coordinates. Throughout the module we

will use a righthanded coordinate system to
reference the location of points in space. We will
also use the convention followed in many
technical books, which requires the positive z axis
to be directed upward (the zenith direction) so
that it measures the height of an object or the
altitude of a point. The x, y axes then lie in the
horizontal plane, Fig. 2–34 . Points in space are
located relative to the origin of coordinates, O ,
by successive measurements along the x, y, z axes. For example, the coordinates of
point A are obtained by starting at O and measuring xA = +4 m along the x axis, then
yA = +2 m along the y axis, and finally zA = - 6 m along the z axis. Thus, A (4 m, 2 m,
- 6 m). In a similar manner, measurements along the x, y, z axes from O to B yield
the coordinates of B , i.e., B (6 m, -1 m, 4 m).

Position Vector. A position vector r is defined as a fixed vector which locates a point
in space relative to another point. For example, if r extends from the origin of
coordinates, O, to point P ( x, y, z ), Fig. 2–35a , then r can be expressed in Cartesian
vector form as

Note how the head-to-tail vector addition of the three components yields
vector r, Fig. 2–35b. Starting at the origin O, one “travels” x in the +i direction, then
y in the +j direction, and finally z in the +k direction to arrive at point P ( x, y, z ).
 LESSON 2.1-5: POSITION VECTORS 19

In the more general case, the position

vector may be directed from point A to point
B in space, Fig. 2–36 a. This vector is also
designated by the symbol r. As a matter of
convention, we will sometimes refer to this
vector with two subscripts to indicate from
and to the point where it is directed. Thus, r
can also be designated as rAB. Also, note that
rA and rB in Fig. 2–36 a are referenced with
only one subscript since they extend from
the origin of coordinates.

From Fig. 2–36 a, by the head-to-tail vector addition, using the triangle rule,
we require

Solving for r and expressing rA and rB in Cartesian vector form yields

Thus, the i , j , k components of the position vector r may be formed by taking

20 MODULE 2.1/ FORCE VECTORS

the coordinates of the tail of the vector

A(xA, yA, zA) and subtracting them from
the corresponding coordinates of the
head B(xB, yB, zB) . We can also form these
components directly, Fig. 2–36 b , by
starting at A and moving through a
distance of ( xB - xA ) along the positive x
axis (+i ), then ( yB - yA ) along the positive
y axis (+j ), and finally ( zB - zA ) along the
positive z axis (+k ) to get to B .
 LESSON 2.1-6: FORCE VECTOR DIRECTED ALONG A LINE 21

2.1-6 FORCE VECTOR DIRECTED ALONG A LINE

Quite often in three-dimensional

statics problems, the direction of a force
is
specified by two points through which its
line of action passes. Such a situation is
shown in Fig. 2–38, where the force F is
directed along the cord AB. We can
formulate F as a Cartesian vector by
realizing that it has the same direction
and sense as the position vector r
directed from point A to point B on the
cord. This common direction is specified
by the unit vector u = r/r. Hence,

Although we have represented F symbolically in Fig. 2–38, note that it has

units of force, unlike r, which has units of length.
22 MODULE 2.1/ FORCE VECTORS
LESSON 2.1-6: FORCE VECTOR DIRECTED ALONG A LINE 23