Engineering Mechanics-Statics-First Year- Civil Engineering
CHAPTER 1 Force Vectors
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Engineering Mechanics-Statics-First Year- Civil Engineering
1.1 General Principles
Mechanics is a branch of the physical sciences that is concerned with the state of rest or
motion of bodies that are subjected to the action of forces.
Mechanics
Fluid Deformable-body Rigid body
mechanics mechanics mechanics
Rigid-body mechanics will be studied since it is a basic requirement for the study of the
mechanics of deformable bodies and the mechanics of fluids. Furthermore, rigid-body
mechanics is essential for the design and analysis of many types of structural members,
mechanical components, or electrical devices encountered in engineering.
Rigid body mechanics
Dynamics Statics
Dynamics is concerned Statics deals with the equilibrium of bodies
with the accelerated motion of bodies those that are either at rest or move with a
constant velocity
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Engineering Mechanics-Statics-First Year- Civil Engineering
Units of measurement
Units of measurement
U.S. Customary SI Units
U.S. Customary system The International System of units
- length is measured in feet (ft) - length is measured in meters (m)
- time in seconds (s) - time in seconds (s)
- force in pounds (lb) - force in newton (N)
- mass in slug - mass in kilograms (kg)
- lb = slug . ft/s2 - N = kg . m/s2
- gravity (g)= 32.2 ft/s2 - gravity (g)= 9.81 m/s2
Note// In our study we will use only the SI units
1 1000 1 60
1 1000 1ℎ 60 3600
1 1000 1 24 ℎ
1 100 1000 1 86400
1 10
1 1000
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Engineering Mechanics-Statics-First Year- Civil Engineering
1.2 Scalar and Vectors
. Quantities
Vectors Scalar
Quantities Quantities
A vector is any physical quantity that A scalar is any positive or negative
requires both a magnitude and a physical quantity that can be completely
direction for its complete description. specified by its magnitude.
Examples: force, position, and moment Examples: length, mass, and time
Direction
of vector
A vector is shown graphically by an arrow. The length of the arrow represents the magnitude
of the vector, and the angle between the vector and a fixed axis defines the direction of the
vector. The head or tip of the arrow indicates the sense of direction of the vector.
1.3 Vector Operations
Multiplication and Division of a Vector by a Scalar.
If a vector is multiplied by a positive scalar, its magnitude is increased by that amount.
Multiplying by a negative scalar will also change the directional sense of the vector.
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Engineering Mechanics-Statics-First Year- Civil Engineering
Vector Addition.
When adding two vectors together it is important to account for both their magnitudes and
their directions.
Parallelogram law
The two component vectors A and B are added to form a resultant vector R = A + B
Triangle rule
Triangle rule, which is a special case of the parallelogram law, whereby vector B is added to
vector A in a “head-to-tail” fashion
Special case
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 reduces to an algebraic or scalar addition R = A + B
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Engineering Mechanics-Statics-First Year- Civil Engineering
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)
Subtraction is defined as a special case of addition, so the rules of vector addition also apply
to vector subtraction.
1.4 Vector Addition of Forces
Finding a Resultant Force.
Parallelogram law Tringle rule
Finding the Components of a Force.
Parallelogram law Tringle rule
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Engineering Mechanics-Statics-First Year- Civil Engineering
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, 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.,
( + )+
Cosine Law and Sine Law
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Engineering Mechanics-Statics-First Year- Civil Engineering
Geometry and Trigonometry Review
1) The angles u in Fig. A–1 are equal between the transverse and two parallel lines.
2) For a line and its normal, the angles u in Fig. A–2 are equal.
3) The sides of a similar triangle can be obtained by proportion as in Fig. A–3,
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4) For the right triangle in Fig. A–4, the Pythagorean theorem is
ℎ %( )& + ( )&
The trigonometric functions are
sin *
ℎ
cos *
ℎ
tan *
