Lesson No.

Fundamental Concepts and Principles

Used in the Study of Mechanics
.

What is Mechanics?
❑ The science which describes and predicts the conditions of rest or motion of bodies under the
action of forces.

It is divided into three parts:

1. Mechanics of rigid bodies.

2. Mechanics of deformable bodies.
3. Mechanics of fluids.

Mechanics of rigid bodies is divided into two main branches:

1. Statics. Deals with forces and with the effects of forces acting upon rigid bodies @ rest.
2. Dynamics. Deals with motion and with the effects of forces acting on rigid bodies in motion.

In actual, structures and machines are never rigid and deform under the loads to which they
are subjected. But these deformations are usually small and do not appreciably affect the
conditions of equilibrium or motion of the structure under consideration.

FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES

Basic concepts used in the study of mechanics:

1. Space is associated with the notion of the position of a point P. The position of P can be defined by
three lengths measured from a certain reference point, or origin, in three given directions. These
lengths are known as the coordinates of P.
2. Mass is used to characterize and compare bodies on the basis of certain fundamental mechanical
experiments.
3. Time is used to define an event.
4. Force represents the action of one body on another. It is characterized by its point of application,
its magnitude, and its direction. It is a vector quantity.
5. Particle. A body of negligible dimensions is called a particle.

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 6. Rigid Body. A body is considered rigid when the relative movements between its parts are
negligible for the purpose at hand.

Fundamental Principles used in the study of mechanics:

1. The Parallelogram Law for the Addition of Forces
This states that 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 sides equal to the given
forces.
2. The Principle of Transmissibility
This states that the conditions of equilibrium or of 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 point, provided that the forces have the same line of action.

Newton’s Three Fundamental Laws

3. First Law
If the resultant force acting on a particle is zero, the particle will remain at rest (if originally at rest)
or will move with constant speed in a straight line (if originally in motion).
4. Second Law.
If the resultant force acting on a particle is not zero, the particle will have an acceleration
proportional to the magnitude of the resultant and in the direction of this resultant force.

F = ma

5. Third Law.
The forces of action and reaction between bodies in contact have the same magnitude, same line of
action and opposite sense.
6. Newton’s Law of Gravitation.
This states that two particles of mass M and m are mutually attracted with equal and opposite
forces F and –F of magnitude given by the formula

F = G Mm/ r2
Where: F = force of gravitation between the two particles
G = universal constant of gravitation
M, m= mass of each of the two particles

m
r

r = distance between the two particles m and M.

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System of Units :

1. International System of units ( SI Units ).

Length in meter ( m ), mass in kilogram (kg), time in second (s)
Force = ma, 1N = (1 kg )(1 m/s2 ) = 1 kg m/s2
Weight = mg
2. U.S. Customary Units
Length in foot (ft), mass in slug, time in second (s)
2
Force = ma, 1 lb = (1 slug )( 1ft/s )
Other U.S. customary system of units :
1 mile = 5280 ft, 1 kilopound = 1kip = 1000 lb, 1 ton = 2000 lb.

Units of Force.

The US customary unit of force (pound) is defined as the weight of the standard pound (of mass
0.4536 kg) at sea level and at a latitude of 45°(where g = 9.807 m/sec2) and using the equation:

W = mg . 1 lb = (0.4536 kg)(9.807 m/sec2) = 4.448 kg m/sec2

Or 1 lb = 4.448 N , where 1 Newton = kg m/sec2

Units of Mass.

The US customary unit of mass (slug) is a derived unit.

1 slug = 1 lb sec2/ft = 1 lb = 4.448N = 14.59 N sec2/m

1 ft/sec2 0.3048m/sec2

1 slug = 1 lb sec2/ft = 14.59 kg

The four fundamental quantities and their units and symbols :

QUANTITY DIMENSIONAL SI UNITS US CUSTOMARY UNITS

SYMBOL UNIT SYMBOL UNIT SYMBOL
Mass M Kilogram kg slug
Length L Meter m foot ft
Time T Second s second sec
Force F Newton N Pound lb

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SCALARS AND VECTORS

Mechanics deals with two kinds of quantities: scalars and vectors. Scalar quantities are those with
which a magnitude alone is associated. Examples of scalar quantities in mechanics are time, volume,
density, speed, energy, and mass. Vector quantities possess direction as well as magnitude and must
obey the parallelogram law of addition of vectors. Here are examples of vector quantities:
displacement, velocity, acceleration, force, moment, and momentum.

Physical quantities that are vectors fall into one of three classifications—free, sliding, or fixed.

A free vector is one whose action is not confined to or associated with a unique line in space. For
example, if a body moves without rotation, then the movement or displacement of any point in the
body may be taken as a vector, and this vector will describe equally well the direction and magnitude of
the displacement of every point in the body.

A sliding vector is one for which the force may be applied at any point along its line of action
without changing its effect on the body as a whole and hence may be considered a sliding vector.

A fixed vector is one for which a unique point of application is specified, and therefore the vector
occupies a particular position in space. The action of a force on a deformable or nonrigid body must be
specified by a fixed vector at the point of application of the force.

A vector quantity is represented by a line segment with an arrowhead to indicate the direction.
The length of the directed line segment represents its magnitude that depends to some convenient
scale.

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