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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Vector Operation
 Parallelogram Method
▪ The diagonal of this parallelogram that extends to P forms R, which then
represents the resultant vector R = A + B, (c)

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11

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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Vector Operation
 Parallelogram Method – Triangle rule
▪ We can also add B to A, using the 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, i.e., by connecting the head of A to the tail of B, (b).

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11

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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Vector Operation
 Parallelogram Method – Triangle rule
▪ The resultant R extends from the tail of A to the head of B. In a similar manner, R
can also be obtained by adding A to B, (c)
▪ By comparison, it is seen that vector addition is commutative; in other words,
the vectors can be added in either order, i.e., R = A + B = B + A.

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11

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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Vector Operation
 Parallelogram Method
▪ 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

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11

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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Vector Operation
 Subtraction of Vectors
➢ 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 therefore defined as a special case of addition, so the rules
of vector addition also apply to vector subtraction.

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11

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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Vector Operation
 Parallelogram Method for more than two Vectors

➢ The sum of three vectors P, Q, and S will, by definition, be obtained by first adding the
vectors P and Q and then adding the vector S to the vector P + Q
➢ We thus write P + Q + S = (P + Q) + S
➢ Similarly, the sum of four vectors will be obtained by adding the fourth vector to the sum of
the first three
➢ It follows that the sum of any number of vectors can be obtained by applying repeatedly the
parallelogram law to successive pairs of vectors until all the given vectors are replaced by
Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ
a single [email protected] 2024-09-11
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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Vector Operation
 Parallelogram Method for more than two Vectors
➢ If the given vectors are coplanar, their sum can be easily
obtained graphically.
➢ For this case, the repeated application of the triangle rule
is preferred to the application of the parallelogram law.
➢ The determination of the vector P + Q, however, could
have been omitted and the sum of the three vectors could
have been obtained directly by using polygon rule
Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11
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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Vector Operation
 Parallelogram Method for more than two Vectors
➢ We observe that the result obtained would have been
unchanged if the vectors Q and S had been replaced by their
sum Q + S. We may thus write P + Q + S = (P + Q) + S = P +
(Q + S) which expresses the fact that vector addition is
associative.
➢ You Recall that vector addition has also been shown, in the case
of two vectors, to be commutative
➢ This shows that the order in which several vectors are added
Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11
together is immaterial
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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Vector Addition of Forces

 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.
Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11
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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Vector Addition of Forces

 Finding a Resultant Force. The two component forces F1 and F2
➢ acting on the pin can be added together to form the resultant force FR = F1 + F2.
➢ From this construction, or using the triangle rule, 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.

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11

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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Vector Addition of Forces

 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, F is to be resolved into two components along 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 v. These lines then intersect with the v and u
axes, forming a parallelogram
Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11
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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Vector Addition of Forces

 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.
➢ This parallelogram can then be reduced to a triangle, which represents the
triangle rule. From this, the law of sines can then be applied to determine the
unknown magnitudes of the components

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11

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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Vector Addition of Forces

 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., FR
= (F1 + F2) + F3.
Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11
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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

 Vectors can be added by Algebraic solution:

➢ Cosine or Sine Rule
▪ Cosine Rule a 2 = b 2 + c 2 − 2bcCosA
a b c
▪ Sine Rule = =
SinA SinB SinC
➢ You can also use rectangular components: The components
are oriented in the X and Y direction.

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11

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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

▪ Cosine Rule a 2 = b 2 + c 2 − 2bcCosA

a b c
▪ Sine Rule = =
SinA SinB SinC

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11

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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11

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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

▪ Cosine Rule a 2 = b 2 + c 2 − 2bcCosA

a b c
▪ Sine Rule = =
SinA SinB SinC

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11

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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11

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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

a 2 = b 2 + c 2 − 2bcCosA
a b c
= =
SinA SinB SinC

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11

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COMPOSITION & RESOLUTION OF FORCE

a 2 = b 2 + c 2 − 2bcCosA
a b c
= =
SinA SinB SinC

Eng P.Ng'andu BEng. MSc. MEIZ [email protected] 2024-09-11