Mechanical Engineering Principles

Second Edition

Why are competent engineers so vital?

Engineering is among the most important of all professions. It is the authors’

opinions that engineers save

more lives than medical doctors (physicians). For example, poor water or the lack
of it, is the second largest

cause of human death in the world, and if engineers are given the tools, they can
solve this problem. The

largest cause of human death is caused by the malarial mosquito, and even death
due to malaria can be

decreased by engineers - by providing helicopters for spraying areas infected by the

mosquito and making and

designing medical syringes and pills to protect people against catching all sorts of
diseases. Most medicines

are produced by engineers! How does the engineer put 1 mg of ‘medicine’ precisely
and individually into

millions of pills, at an affordable price?

Moreover, one of the biggest contributions by humankind was the design of the
agricultural tractor, which

was designed and built by engineers to increase food production many-fold for a
human population which

more-or-less quadruples every century! It is also interesting to note that the richest
countries in the world are

very heavily industrialised. Engineers create wealth! Most other professions don’t!

Even in blue sky projects, engineers play a major role. For example, most rocket
scientists are chartered

engineers or their equivalents and Americans call their Chartered Engineers (and
their equivalents), scientists.

Astronomers are space scientists and not rocket scientists; they could not design a
rocket to conquer outer
space. Even modern theoretical physicists are mainly interested in astronomy and
cosmology and also nuclear

science. In general a theoretical physicist cannot, without special training, design a

submarine structure to

dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, which is 11.52 km or 7.16 miles deep, or
design a very long bridge,

a tall city skyscraper or a rocket to conquer outer space.

This book presents a solid foundation for the reader in mechanical engineering
principles, on which s/he

can safely build tall buildings and long bridges that may last for a thousand years or
more. It is the authors’

experience that it is most unwise to attempt to build such structures on shaky

foundations; they may come

tumbling down - with disastrous consequences.

John O. Bird is the former Head of Applied Electronics in the Faculty of Technology at
Highbury College,

Portsmouth, U.K. More recently, he has combined freelance lecturing at the University
of Portsmouth, with Examiner

responsibilities for Advanced Mathematics with City & Guilds, and examining for the
International Baccalaureate

Organisation. He is the author of some 120 textbooks on engineering and mathematical

subjects with worldwide sales

approaching 1 million copies. He is currently a Senior Training Provider at the Royal

Naval School of Marine

Engineering in the Defence College of Marine and Air Engineering at H.M.S. Sultan,
Gosport, Hampshire, U.K.

Carl T. F. Ross gained his fi rst degree in Naval Architecture, from King’s College,
Durham University; his PhD in

Structural Engineering from the Victoria University of Manchester; and was awarded his
DSc in Ocean Engineering

from the CNAA, London. His research in the fi eld of engineering led to advances in the
design of submarine pressure
hulls. His publications to date exceed some 270 papers and books and he is Professor
of Structural Dynamics at the

University of Portsmouth, U.K.

See Carl Ross’s website below, which has an enormous content on science,
technology and education.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carl.ross/page3.htm

Mathematics is a vital tool for professional and

chartered engineers. It is used in mechanical &

manufacturing engineering, in electrical & electronic

engineering, in civil & structural engineering, in naval

architecture & marine engineering and in aeronautical

& rocket engineering. In these various branches of

engineering, it is very often much cheaper and safer

to design your artefact with the aid of mathematics -

rather than through guesswork. ‘Guesswork’ may

be reasonably satisfactory if you are designing an

artefact similar to one that has already proven

satisfactory; however, the classification societies will

usually require you to provide the calculations proving

that the artefact is safe and sound. Moreover, these

calculations may not be readily available to you and

you may have to provide fresh calculations, to prove

that your artefact is ‘roadworthy’. For example, if you

design a tall building or a long bridge by ‘guesswork’,

and the building or bridge do not prove to be

structurally reliable, it could cost you a fortune to

rectify the deficiencies. This cost may dwarf the initial

estimate you made to construct these artefacts, and

cause you to go bankrupt. Thus, without mathematics,

the prospective professional or chartered engineer is

very severely handicapped.

1.1â•… Introduction

As highlighted above, it is not possible to understand

aspects of mechanical engineering without a good

knowledge of mathematics. This chapter highlights

some areas of mathematics which will make the

understanding of the engineering in the following

chapters a little easier.

1.2â•… Radians and degrees

There are 2π radians or 360° in a complete circle, thus:

π radians = 180°â•…â•… from which,

1 rad =

180

â•…â•… orâ•…â•… 1° =

180 rad

where π = 3.14159265358979323846 .... to 20 decimal

places!

Problem 1. Convert the following angles to

degrees correct to 3 decimal places:

(a) 0.1 rad (b) 0.2 rad (c) 0.3 rad

(a) 0.1 rad = 0.1 rad × 180

π rad

°
= 5.730°

(b) 0.2 rad = 0.2 rad × 180

π rad

= 11.459°

At the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• convert radians to degrees

• convert degrees to radians

• calculate sine, cosine and tangent for large and

small angles

• calculate the sides of a right-angled triangle

• use Pythagoras’ theorem

• use the sine and cosine rules for acute-angled

triangles

• expand equations containing brackets

• be familiar with summing vulgar fractions

• understand and perform calculations with percentages

• understand and use the laws of indices

• solve simple simultaneous equations

4â•… Mechanical Engineering Principles

Part One

(c) 0.3 rad = 0.3 rad ×

180

π rad

= 17.189°

Problem 2. Convert the following angles to

radians correct to 4 decimal places:

(a) 5° (b) 10° (c) 30°

(a) 5° = 5° × rad

180 36

π = π ° rad = 0.0873 rad

(b) 10° = 10° × rad

180 18

π = π ° rad = 0.1745 rad

(c) 30° = 30° × rad

180 6

π = π ° rad = 0.5236 rad

Now try the following Practise Exercise

Practise Exercise 1â•… Radians and degrees

1. Convert the following angles to degrees

correct to 3 decimal places (where necessary):

(a) 0.6 rad (b) 0.8 rad

(c) 2 rad (d) 3.14159 rad

[(a) 34.377°â•…â•… (b) 45.837°

(c) 114.592° (d) 180° ]

2. Convert the following angles to radians

correct to 4 decimal places:

(a) 45° (b) 90°

(c) 120° (d) 180°

[(a) 4

rad or 0.7854 rad

(b) 2

π
rad or 1.5708 rad

(c) 2

rad or 2.0944 rad

(d) π rad or 3.1416 rad ]

1.3â•… Measurement of angles

Angles are measured starting from the horizontal ‘x’

axis, in an anticlockwise direction, as shown by θ1 to

θ4 in Figure 1.1. An angle can also be measured in a

clockwise direction, as shown by θ5 in Figure 1.1, but

in this case the angle has a negative sign before it. If,

for example, θ4 = 300° then θ5 = – 60°.

Figure 1.1

Problem 3. Use a calculator to determine the

cosine, sine and tangent of the following angles,

each measured anticlockwise from the horizontal

‘x’ axis, each correct to 4 decimal places:

(a) 30° (b) 120° (c) 250°

(d) 320° (e) 390° (f) 480°

(a) cos 30° = 0.8660 sin 30° = 0.5000

tan 30° = 0.5774

(b) cos 120° = – 0.5000 sin 120° = 0.8660

tan 120° = – 1.7321

(c) cos 250° = – 0.3420 sin 250° = – 0.9397

tan 250° = 2.7475

(d) cos 320° = 0.7660 sin 320° = – 0.6428

tan 320° = – 0.8391

(e) cos 390° = 0.8660 sin 390° = 0.5000

tan 390° = 0.5774

(f) cos 480° = – 0.5000 sin 480° = 0.8660

tan 480° = – 1.7321

These angles are now drawn in Figure 1.2. Note

that cosine and sine always lie between –1 and +1 but

that tangent can be >1 and <1.

Figure 1.2

Revisionary mathematicsâ•… 5

Part One

Note from Figure 1.2 that θ = 30º is the same as

θ = 390º and so are their cosines, sines and tangents.

Similarly, note that θ = 120º is the same as θ = 480º

and so are their cosines, sines and tangents. Also, note

that θ = – 40º is the same as θ = +320º and so are their

cosines, sines and tangents.

It is noted from above that

• in the first quadrant, i.e. where θ varies from 0º

to 90º, all (A) values of cosine, sine and tangent are

positive

• in the second quadrant, i.e. where θ varies from

90º to 180º, only values of sine (S) are positive

• in the third quadrant, i.e. where θ varies

from 180º to 270º, only values of tangent (T) are

positive

• in the fourth quadrant, i.e. where θ varies

from 270º to 360º, only values of cosine (C) are

positive

These positive signs, A, S, T and C are shown in

Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.3

Now try the following Practise Exercise

Practise Exercise 2â•…_Measurement of

angles

1. Find the cosine, sine and tangent of the following

angles, where appropriate each correct

to 4 decimal places:

(a) 60° (b) 90° (c) 150°

(d) 180° (e) 210° (f) 270°

(g) 330° (h) – 30° (i) 420°

(j) 450° (k) 510°

[(a) 0.5, 0.8660, 1.7321

(b) 0, 1, ∞

(c) – 0.8660, 0.5, – 0.5774

(d) –1, 0, 0

(e) – 0.8660, – 0.5, 0.5774

(f) 0, –1, – ∞

(g) 0.8660, – 0.5000, – 0.5774

(h) 0.8660, – 0.5000, – 0.5774

(i) 0.5, 0.8660, 1.7321

(j) 0, 1, ∞

(k) – 0.8660, 0.5, – 0.5774]

1.4â•… Triangle calculations

(a) Sine, cosine and tangent

From Figure 1.4, sin θ =

bc

ac â•…â•…

cos θ =

ab

ac

t an θ = bc

ab

Figure 1.4

Problem 4. In Figure 1.4, if ab = 2 and ac = 3,

determine the angle θ.

It is convenient to use the expression for cos θ, since

‘ab’ and ‘ac’ are given.

Hence, cos θ = 23

ab

ac = = 0.66667

from which, θ = cos–1(0.66667) = 48.19º

Problem 5. In Figure 1.4, if bc = 1.5 and

ac = 2.2, determine the angle θ.

It is convenient to use the expression for sin θ, since

‘bc’ and ‘ac’ are given.

Hence, sin θ = 1.5

2.2

bc

ac = = 0.68182

from which, θ = sin–1(0.68182) = 42.99º

Problem 6. In Figure 1.4, if bc = 8 and ab = 1.3,

determine the angle θ.

It is convenient to use the expression for tan θ, since

‘bc’ and ‘ab’ are given.