Engineering Mechanics – Statics

Lecture 1

Course Syllabus

Warm welcome to everybody

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 Subject
 Evaluation:
Midterm exam 50%
Final exam 50%

 Course Materials
Lecture notes
Power points slides
Handout sheets
Textbooks
Engineering Mechanics: Statics by J. Meriam
Engineering Mechanics: Statics 10th edition by R.C. Hibbeler

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Lecture 1 Engineering Mechanics – Statics
 Instructional Objectives
 After completing the course, you should be able to:
Analyze forces and find out the resultant forces in two and three
dimension
Differentiate between various type of supports and draw free-body-
diagram
Compute the reaction force and internal forces at a specific point on a
simple structure (beam, frame, truss)
Obtain centre of mass and centroid for deferent engineering shapes &
moment of inertia for deferent sections.

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Lecture 1 Engineering Mechanics – Statics
 Course Outline
 Introduction to Statics
 Force System
Two-dimensional force systems
Three-dimensional force systems
 Equilibriums
Equilibrium in two dimensions
Equilibrium in three dimensions
 Structural Analysis
Trusses
Plane trusses
Frames

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Lecture 1 Engineering Mechanics – Statics
 Course Outline
 Distributed Forces
Centers of Mass and Centroids
 Area Moments of Inertia

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Lecture 1 Engineering Mechanics – Statics
 Introduction to Mechanics
 What is mechanics?
Physical science deals with the
state of rest or motion of bodies
under the action of force.
Mechanics

 Why we study mechanics?

Statics Dynamics
This science form the
groundwork for further study in
the design and analysis of Kinematics
structures.
Kinatics

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Lecture 1
 Basic Terms
 Essential basic terms to be understood
Statics: dealing with the equilibrium of a rigid-body at rest
Rigid body: the relative movement between its parts are negligible
Dynamics: dealing with a rigid-body in motion
Length: applied to the linear dimension of a strait line or curved line
Area: the two dimensional size of shape or surface
Volume: the three dimensional size of the space occupied by substance
Force: the action of one body on another whether it’s a push or a pull
force
Mass: the amount of matter in a body
Weight: the force with which a body is attracted toward the centre of
the Earth
Particle: a body of negligible dimension
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Lecture 1 Engineering Mechanics – Statics
 Fundamental Concepts
 Space - associated with the notion of the position of a point P given in
terms of three coordinates measured from a reference point or origin.
 Time - definition of an event requires specification of the time and
position at which it occurred.
 Mass - used to characterize and compare bodies, e.g., response to earth’s
gravitational attraction and resistance to changes in translational
motion.
 Force - represents the action of one body on another. A force is
characterized by its point of application, magnitude, and direction, i.e., a
force is a vector quantity.
 In Newtonian Mechanics, space, time, and mass are absolute concepts,
independent of each other. Force, however, is not independent of the
other three. The force acting on a body is related to the mass of the
body and the variation of its velocity with time

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Lecture 1 Engineering Mechanics – Statics
 Continued…..
 Newton’s First Law: If the resultant force on a
particle is zero, the particle will remain at rest or
continue to move in a straight line.

 Newton’s Second Law: A particle will have an

acceleration proportional to a nonzero resultant
Parallelogram Law • applied force. 
F  ma

 Newton’s Third Law: The forces of action and

reaction between two particles have the same
magnitude and line of action with opposite sense.

 Newton’s Law of Gravitation: Two particles are

attracted with equal and opposite forces,
Principle of Transmissibility•

Mm GM
F G 2 W  mg , g 
r R2
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Lecture 1 Engineering Mechanics – Statics
 Units of Measurement
 Four fundamental quantities in mechanics
Mass
Length
Time
Force
 Two different systems of units we dealing with during the
course
U.S. Customary or British System of Units (FPS)
 Length in feet (ft)
Time in Seconds (s)
 Force in Pounds (lb)
International System of Units or Metric Units (SI)
Length in metre (m)
Time in Seconds (s)
 Force in Newton (N)
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Lecture 1 Engineering Mechanics – Statics
 Units of Measurement
Summery of the four fundamental quantities in the two
system

SI Units US Units
Quantity
Unit Symbol Unit Symbol

Mass kilogram kg slug -

Length meter m foot ft

Time second s second sec

Force newton N pound lb

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Lecture 1 Engineering Mechanics – Statics
 Units of Measurement
 Metric System (SI)
SI System offers major advantages relative to the FPS system
Widely used throughout the world
Use one basic unit for length  meter; while FPS uses many basic units  inch,
foot, yard, mile
SI based on multiples of 10, which makes it easier to use & learn whereas FPS is
complicated, for example
SI system 1 meter = 100 centimeters, 1 kilometer = 1000 meters, etc
FPS system 1 foot = 12 inches, 1 yard = 3 feet, 1 mile = 5280 feet, etc

 Metric System (SI)

Newton’s second law F = m.a
Thus the force (N) = mass (kg)  acceleration (m/s2)

Therefore 1 Newton is the force required to give a mass of 1 kg an

acceleration of 1 m/s2
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Lecture 1 Engineering Mechanics – Statics
 Units of Measurement
 U.S. Customary System (FPS)
Force (lb) = mass (slugs)  acceleration (ft/sec2 )
Thus (slugs) = lb.sec2/ft
Therefore 1 slug is the mass which is given an acceleration of 1 ft/sec2
when acted upon by a force of 1 lb
 Conversion of Units
Converting from one system of unit to another;

Quantity FPS Equals SI

Force 1 lb 4.448 N
Mass 1 slug 14.593 kg
Length 1 ft 0.304 m
 The standard value of g (gravitational acceleration)
 SI units g = 9.806 m/s2
 FPS units g = 32.174 ft/sec2
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Lecture 1 Engineering Mechanics – Statics
 Method of Problem Solution
 Problem Statement:
Includes given data, specification of what is to be determined, and a figure
showing all quantities involved.
 Free-Body Diagrams:
Create separate diagrams for each of the bodies involved with a clear
indication of all forces acting on each body.
 Fundamental Principles:
The six fundamental principles are applied to express the conditions of rest or
motion of each body. The rules of algebra are applied to solve the equations
for the unknown quantities.
 Solution Check:
- Test for errors in reasoning by verifying that the units of the computed
results are correct,
- test for errors in computation by substituting given data and computed
results into previously unused equations based on the six principles,
- always apply experience and physical intuition to assess whether results
seem “reasonable”
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Lecture 1 Engineering Mechanics – Statics
 Numerical Accuracy

 The accuracy of a solution depends on 1) accuracy of the given data, and

2) accuracy of the computations performed. The solution cannot be
more accurate than the less accurate of these two.

 The use of hand calculators and computers generally makes the

accuracy of the computations much greater than the accuracy of the
data. Hence, the solution accuracy is usually limited by the data
accuracy.

 As a general rule for engineering problems, the data are seldom known
with an accuracy greater than 0.2%. Therefore, it is usually
appropriate to record parameters beginning with “1” with four digits
and with three digits in all other cases, i.e., 40.2 lb and 15.58 lb.

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Lecture 1 Engineering Mechanics – Statics