Introduction to

Statics
Prepared by:
Ararat Rahimy

December 2021

Engineering Skills- Semester I- PE 1

Objectives
• The students understand what statics is.
• They learn the three laws of Newton.
• They perceive free body diagram and its importance.
• The students are familiarized with the SI units.
• The students learn about Force and its types.
• They understand the coordinate systems and get to convert one to
another.
• They get to learn different methods of vector addition.
• They perceive the forces acting on a particle.

Engineering Skills- Semester I- PE 2

Introduction
• Statics is concerned with particles and rigid bodies that are in
equilibrium, and these will usually be stationary.

• Statics is concerned with forces in situations where there is no

motion.

• Engineering Statics is the gateway into engineering mechanics, which

is the application of Newtonian physics to design and analyze objects,
systems, and structures with respect to motion, deformation, and failure

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Newton’s
Laws
• Newton’s first law states that
‘’An object will remain at rest or
in uniform motion in a straight
line unless acted upon by an
external force.’’

• First law is also called ‘’law of

inertia’’.

Figure 1: This rock is at rest with zero velocity and will remain
at rest until a unbalanced force causes it to move.

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Newton’s Laws
• Newton’s 2nd Law is usually succinctly expressed with the following
equation:

𝑭 = 𝒎𝒂
where 𝑭 is net force, 𝒎 is mass, and 𝒂 is acceleration.

• Force and acceleration are vector quantities (having both a magnitude and a
direction) while mass is a scalar quantity.

• In statics, the object is not accelerating (𝑎 = 0), thus the above equation is
simplified to
∑𝑭 = 𝟎

Engineering Skills- Semester I- PE 5

Newton’s
Laws
• Newton’s Third Law states:
‘’For every action, there is an
equal and opposite reaction.’’

• The actions and reactions are

forces.
• Any force acting on one body
is always paired with another
equal-and-opposite force
acting on some other body. Figure 2: The earth exerts a gravitational force on the
• The standard notation for a vector moon, and the moon exerts an equal and opposite force
uses either an arrow above the vector on the earth.
name or the vector name in bold font.
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 Free Body
Diagram
• A free-body diagram — a
sketch where we isolate a
body or system of interest and
identify the forces acting on it.

• Diagram (a) shows a book

resting on a table supported
by the floor.

• To solve for the forces on the

legs of the table, we use the
free-body diagram in (b) which Figure 3: Free-body diagrams are used to isolate objects
treats the book and the table
as a single system. and identify relevant forces.

• In diagram (c) the book and

table are treated as
independent objects.
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UNITS
• Most quantities used in engineering consist of a numeric value and an
associated unit. The value by itself is meaningless, unless, except when
the quantity is unitless.

• The most common system of measurement is the International System

of Units (SI) abbreviated from the French Système international
(d'unités). It is the modern form of metric system.

• In Statics, the second (time), meter (distance), kilogram (mass) are

the only three base units used. All other units required are derived from
combinations of the base units.

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UNITS
• In metric units, the most common force unit is the newton,
abbreviated 𝑵, where one newton is a kilogram multiplied by a
meter per second squared.

Table 1: shows the name and abbreviation of the standard units for weight, mass, length, time, and
gravitational acceleration in SI and US unit systems. When in doubt always convert to these units.

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FORCES

• At its simplest, a force is a

“push or pull,” but forces
come from a variety of
sources and occur in many
different situations.
• As an example of the types of
forces you will encounter in
statics, consider the forces
affecting a box on a rough
surface being pulled by a
cable. Figure 4: Forces on a box being pulled across a rough surface.

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Types of Forces

• Reaction Forces
(Normal and Friction Forces)

• Body Forces
(Weight and Buoyancy)

• Point Force

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Vectors and Scalars
• Before one can solve statics problems, they will need to understand the
basic physical quantities used in Statics: scalars and vectors.

• Scalars are physical quantities which have no associated direction and

can be described by a positive or negative number, or even zero. Mass,
time, temperature, and length are all scalars.

• Vectors represent physical quantities which have magnitude and a

direction. The primary vector quantity one will encounter in statics will
be force, but moment and position are also important vectors.

Engineering Skills- Semester I- PE 12

Vectors
• A vector can be visualized
as an arrow pointing in a
particular direction.

• A vector arrow is made of a

tail and a tip. They define
a line of action that is
thought of as an invincible
string a long which the
vector can slide.

• The standard notation for a

vector uses either an Figure 5: The definition of a vector
arrow above the vector
name or the vector name
in bold font.

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Rectangular Coordinates & Polar
Coordinates

Figure 6: Cartesian Coordinate System

Figure 7: Polar Coordinates
(Rectangular Coordinate)

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Coordinate
Transformation

• One should be able to

translate points from one
coordinate system to the other
whenever necessary.

• The relation
between (𝑥, 𝑦) coordinates
and (𝑟; 𝜃) coordinates are
illustrated in the diagram and
right triangle trigonometry
is all that is needed to convert
from one representation to the Figure 8: Coordinate Transformation
other.

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Rectangular to Polar Coordinates
Conversion
• Given (𝑥, 𝑦) as a point, we can easily convert the rectangular
coordinates to polar coordinates through using the triangle explained in
the previous slide.
• The following equations are used to find 𝑟 and 𝜃.

Engineering Skills- Semester I- PE 16

Polar to Rectangular Coordinates
Conversion
• In this case, the 𝑟 and 𝜃 are given, and we can easily convert the polar
coordinates to rectangular coordinate again through the triangle.

• The following equations are used to calculate 𝑥 and 𝑦.

Engineering Skills- Semester I- PE 17

Rectangular to Polar Coordinates
Conversion for Forces
• The hypotenuse of the triangle is the magnitude of the vector, and
sides of the right triangle are the scalar components of the force, so
for vector 𝑨 .

Engineering Skills- Semester I- PE 18

Polar to Rectangular Coordinates
Conversion for Forces
• Given the magnitude and direction, we can find the rectangular
coordinates of the force (𝐴𝑥, 𝐴𝑦). The triangle must be used to produce
the following equations.

Engineering Skills- Semester I- PE 19

 Example
Express point 𝑷 = (−𝟖. 𝟔𝟔, 𝟓) in polar coordinates?
Answer:

NOTE: The arctan function on calculators will always return values

in the first and fourth quadrant. If, by inspection of the
and the coordinates, you see that the point is in the second or third quadrant, you must add or subtract
to the calculator’s answer.

As a result, 𝑷 = (𝟏𝟎; 𝟏𝟓𝟎 ◦)

Engineering Skills- Semester I- PE 20
Example
Vector 𝑨 = 𝟐𝟎𝟎 𝑵∠𝟒𝟓 ∘ counterclockwise from the x axis, and vector 𝑩 = 𝟑𝟎𝟎 𝑵 ∠𝟕𝟎
∘ counterclockwise from the y axis. Find the resultant 𝑹 = 𝑨 + 𝑩 by addition of scalar components?

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Forces on a Particle in One Plane
• “in one plane” = “in two dimensions”.

• Two lines that meet at a point are always in one plane.

• In this case, the effect of forces acting at angles to the horizontal is

analyzed. Ultimately, the net force has an influence in two dimensions -
horizontally and vertically.

• For such situations, Newton's second law applies as it always did for
situations involving one-dimensional net forces.
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Methods of Adding Vectors
Method 1: Draw a parallelogram

• Case 1: θ less than 90⁰

Draw lines parallel to the forces A and B, each starting from an arrow tip.
Next, draw the resultant (= the sum of the vectors) from
the point of application to the point where the two dotted lines join.

• Case 2: θ more than 90⁰

Exactly, the same technique can be used.

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Methods of Adding Vectors
Method 2: Triangle
• Instead of drawing a parallelogram, we can put the tail of one vector next
to the head of the other and make a triangle.

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Methods of Adding Vectors
Method 3: Components
• Consider two forces acting at right angles.

• The resultant can easily be found using Pythagoras theorem

and trigonometry.

• This process can be reversed. A vector can be resolved

into two components such that the two components together have
the same effect as the original vector.

• If we know the components in the x and y directions,

we can add them separately; this may be the quickest way of determining a resultant.

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Equilibrium
• A particle is in equilibrium if the vector sum of the forces acting on it is
zero.
• The vector sum of the forces is zero if the algebraic sum of the
components of all the forces in two perpendicular directions both add to
zero.

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Example
Find FA and FB in the following example?

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Solution

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Engineering Skills- Semester I- PE 30
Example (Assignment)

A 100 N weight is supported

by cable ABCD . There is a
frictionless pulley at B and
the hook is firmly attached to
the cable at point C.

What is the magnitude and

direction of force P required
to hold the system in the
position shown?

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Assistive Notes for the Example
(Assignment)
• There are two particles (B and C).
• You label the rope tensions A, C, and D for the endpoints of the rope
segments.
• You need to use the standard cartesian coordinate system and use the scalar
components method.
• When a cable wraps around a frictionless pulley the tension doesn't change.
• Draw a free body diagram of the figure and show all the forces acting on
particles B and C.

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When to Submit the Assignment
• The Deadline to Submit the Assignment is on Tuesday 4th January
2022 at 12:00 noon.

• You need to submit one copy as a group.

• Each group is composed of three students.
• You must include all the formulas and all the required steps so that
you can tackle the problem.
• The assignment should be written in an organized and neat way.

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