Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman

13 June 2020

UEME1132/1323: STATICS
CHAPTER 1:
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
(Week 2)

PowerPoint® Slides
by Dr. Yew Ming Kun @ 2020
Chapter Outline

1. Mechanics
2. Fundamental Concepts
3. Units of Measurement
4. The International System of Units
5. Numerical Calculations
Learning Objective (s)

▪ Students will be exposed to the study of fundamental

concepts and branches of mechanics.
▪ Students will gain an understanding on basic quantities
and derived quantities in engineering.
▪ Students will learn the three Newton’s Laws of motion
and also Newton’s Gravitational Law.
▪ Students will learn the International Standard (SI) units
and the prefixes used in engineering.
Learning Outcome (s)

▪ Students will be able to differentiate the basic quantity

and derived quantity used in engineering.
▪ Students will be able to examine the standard procedures
for performing numerical calculations.
▪ Students will be able to define the three Newton’s Laws
of motion and also Newton’s Gravitational Law
▪ Students will be able to express engineering quantities
with a suitable SI unit and prefix.
1.1 Mechanics

• Mechanics can be divided into 3 branches:

- Rigid-body Mechanics
- Deformable-body Mechanics
- Fluid Mechanics
1.1 Mechanics

• Rigid-body deals with

- Statics
- Dynamics

• Statics is equilibrium of bodies, either:

➢ At rest/Remain at rest
➢ Move with constant velocity

• Dynamics deals with accelerated motion of bodies.

** We can consider statics as special case of dynamics with

zero acceleration.
1.2 Fundamentals Concepts

Basic Concepts
1. Length: locate the position of a point in space.
2. Time: a measure of the succession of events.
3. Mass: the quantitative measure of the inertia or resistance
to change in motion of a body.
- Mass is the physical quantity of matter in an object and is
independent of its position.
4. Weight is the gravitational attraction force on an object.
Note that an object weighs 10 kg is often used but is
INCORRECT.
- In engineering, weight is best avoided since it can be
ambiguous, if it is used it must only refer to the gravitational
attraction force on an object and must therefore have units
of force, that is Newton.
1.2 Fundamentals Concepts

Basic Concepts
5. Force: the vector action of one body on another.
Force can be direct, i.e., contact or indirect, i.e., gravitational
attraction.
- A force has Magnitude, Direction and Point of application.

6. The SI unit of force in Newton (N) where by definition

- “A Newton is the force required to give a one kilogram mass an
acceleration of one metre per second per second”
1.2 Fundamentals Concepts

Idealizations
1. Particles
- has a mass and its size can be neglected.
- example: the size of earth is insignificant
compared to the size of its orbit. Therefore, earth is
modeled as a particle when studying its orbit
motion.

Figure 1.1: Orbit of

earth
1.2 Fundamentals Concepts

Idealizations
2. Rigid Body
- a combination of a large number of particles,
where:
➢ All particles remain at a fixed distance from each
other before & after applying the loads.
➢ Body’s shape does not change when a load is
applied (due to actual deformation is relatively
small).

Figure 1.2: Three

forces act on a ring
1.2 Fundamentals Concepts

Idealizations
3. Concentrated Force
- the effect of a loading is assumed to act at a point
due to the load contacted area is relatively very
small compared to the overall size of the body.

Figure 1.3: The railroad wheel.

1.2 Fundamentals Concepts

Newton’s Three Laws of Motion

• First Law
“A particle originally at rest, or moving in a straight line
with constant velocity/uniform motion if there are no
un-balanced force acting on it”

Figure 1.4(a): Newton’s First law

1.2 Fundamentals Concepts

Newton’s Three Laws of Motion

• Second Law
“A particle acted upon by an unbalanced force, F
experiences an acceleration a that has the same
direction as the force and a magnitude that is directly
proportional to the force”

F = ma

Figure 1.4(b): Newton’s Second law

1.2 Fundamentals Concepts

Newton’s Three Laws of Motion

• Third Law
“The mutual forces of action and reaction between two
particles are equal and, opposite in direction and
collinear”

Figure 1.4(c): Newton’s Third law

1.2 Fundamentals Concepts

Newton’s Law of Gravitational Attraction

m1 m 2
F =G
r2
F = force of gravitation between two particles (N)
G = universal constant of gravitation (m3/kg.s2)
m1,m2 = mass of each of the two particles (kg)
r = distance between the two particles (m)

mM e
Weight: W =G
r2
Letting g = GM e / r 2 yields W = mg
By experiment, G = 66.73 x 10-12 m3 / (kg.s2)
1.2 Fundamentals Concepts

Newton’s Gravitational Law

▪ In engineering
a) usually on or near earth’s surface
b) earth’s mass and radius usually very large compared
with object under consideration.
M .m1
▪ Hence Equation becomes F = G
R2
where R = radius of the earth
M = mass of the object (kg)

F = mg ▪ g is called the acceleration due to gravity

13 June 2020
and is approximately 9.81 m/s2 16
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1.2 Fundamentals Concepts
Newton’s Gravitational Law
▪ Gravitational force on a mass suspended by a wire
Note that gravitational force acts through the centre of
mass of the body.

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1.3 Units of Measurement

SI Units
• Stands for Système International d’Unités.
• F = ma is maintained only if:
- 3 of the units, called base units, are defined
- 4th unit is derived from the equation
• SI system specifies length in meters (m), time in
seconds (s) and mass in kilograms (kg)
• Force unit, Newton (N), is derived from F = ma
1.3 Units of Measurement

Name Length Time Mass Force

International Meter (m) Second (s) Kilogram (kg) Newton (N)

Systems of Units
(SI)
 kg.m 
 2 
 s 
1.3 Units of Measurement

• At the standard location,

g = 9.806 65 m/s2
• For calculations, we use
g = 9.81 m/s2
• Thus,
W = mg (g = 9.81m/s2)
• Hence, a body of mass 1 kg has a weight of 9.81 N, a
2 kg body weighs 19.62 N.
1.4 The International System of Units

Prefixes
• For a very large or small numerical quantity, units can
be modified by using a prefix.

• Each represent a multiple or sub-multiple of a unit

Eg: 4,000,000 N = 4000 kN (kilo-newton)
= 4 MN (mega- newton)
0.005m = 5 mm (milli-meter)
 1.4 The International System of Units 13 June 2020

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 1.4 The International System of Units 13 June 2020

Prefixes

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1.4 The International System of Units

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1.5 Numerical Calculations

Dimensional Homogeneity
• Each term must be expressed in the same units.
• Regardless of how the equation is evaluated, it
maintains its dimensional homogeneity.
• All terms can be replaced by a consistent set of units.
1.5 Numerical Calculations

Significant Figures
• Accuracy of a number is specified by the number of
significant figures it contains.
• A significant figure is any digit including zero
e.g. 5604 and 34.52 have four significant numbers.
• When numbers begin or end with zero, we make use
of prefixes to clarify the number of significant figures.
e.g.:
➢ 23400 = 23.4 ×103
➢ 0.00582 = 5.82 ×10-3
1.5 Numerical Calculations

Rounding Off Numbers

• Accuracy obtained would never be better than the
accuracy of the problem data.
• Calculators or computers involve more figures in the
answer than the number of significant figures in the
data.
• Calculated results should always be “rounded off” to
an appropriate number of significant figures.
e.g.:
➢ 3.5587 = 3.56
➢ 9.871 = 9.87
1.5 Numerical Calculations

Calculations
• Retain a greater number of digits for accuracy.
• Work out computations so that numbers that are
approximately equal.
• Round off final answers to three significant figures.
Example:

Convert to 2 km/h to m/s.

Solution

2 km  1000 m  1 h 
2 km/h =    = 0.556 m/s
h  km  3600 s 
Remember to round off the final answer to three significant figures.
 References: 13 June 2020

Meriam, J. L. and Kraige, L.G. 2008, Engineering

Mechanics, Vol 1 “Statics”, 6th Edition, J Wiley & Sons.
Hibbeler, R. C. 2013, Engineering Mechanics, Vol 2
“Dynamics”, 13th Edition, Prentice-Hall International.

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