ETG Statics – Fall 2022
Module 2.2
Resultant of concurrent
Forces in a Plane:
Rectangular Components
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Dr. Mohamed Khalafalla Ahmed
COMPONENTS OF A FORCE VECTOR
•Two or more forces may be replaced by their resultant.
• By reversing the process, any force F can be replaced by any
number of forces whose resultant is F.
• Replacement forces are called components of the force F.
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COMPONENTS OF A FORCE VECTOR
• Two components at right angles to each other, called
rectangular components are most useful.
Usually determined in the Also found in any two directions
horizontal & vertical direction. at right angles to each other.
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COMPONENTS OF A FORCE VECTOR
• Rectangular components of a force vector may be found
mathematically by trigonometric functions.
From the definition of the cosine of an angle:
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COMPONENTS OF A FORCE VECTOR
• Components Fx and Fy are considered positive or negative,
depending on whether they act in the positive or negative
direction of the x and y axes.
From the definition of
the cosine of an angle:
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Examples and problems start on textbook
page 36.
Using trigonometry, find the horizontal and vertical components of the forces shown in Fig. (a).
Px = P cos = 14 cos55° = 8.03 N
Py = P sin = 14 sin55° = 11.47 N
Qx = -Q cos = -12.5 cos65° = -5.28 N
Qy = -Q sin = -12.5 sin65° = -11.33 N
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Example: Determine the rectangular components of the forces shown previously with respect
to axes that form angles of 30° and 120° with the horizontal.
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RESULTANT OF CONCURRENT FORCES
BY RECTANGULAR COMPONENTS
• The resultant of 3 or more concurrent forces may be found
graphically by the polygon of forces.
• The usual mathematical solution is based on the method
of rectangular components.
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RESULTANT OF CONCURRENT FORCES
BY RECTANGULAR COMPONENTS
• To develop the rectangular component method, consider forces P
and Q, which act at point A and form angles 1 and 2 with the x
axis.
The x and y components of P and Q can be found
graphically by the method described in Sec. 2.5.
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RESULTANT OF CONCURRENT FORCES
BY RECTANGULAR COMPONENTS
• They x and y components may also be found by equations, as
follows:
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RESULTANT OF CONCURRENT FORCES
BY RECTANGULAR COMPONENTS
Because the components Px and Qx lie on
the x axis, they may be added algebraically to
find the resultant in the x direction, Rx.
ΣFx means the algebraic sum of
the x components of the forces.
The Greek capital letter Σ
(sigma) means the algebraic.
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RESULTANT OF CONCURRENT FORCES
BY RECTANGULAR COMPONENTS
Adding resultants in the x and y directions, Rx
and Ry finds the resultant R of the force system.
Rectangular components
can be used to find the
resultant of any number
of forces, exactly, and in
a single step.
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RESULTANT OF CONCURRENT FORCES
BY RECTANGULAR COMPONENTS
Magnitude/direction of the resultant can be found
from the Pythagorean theorem and the definition of
the tangent of the angle .
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Example on
textbook page 39
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For the concurrent force system shown in Fig. 2.17(a), find the resultant by the rectangular component method.
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DIFFERENCE OF TWO FORCES:
VECTOR DIFFERENCES
• From the usual rules of algebra, we write:
• The force F when added to the force F has a resultant equal to
zero.
– Such a force must have the same magnitude as
force F and be directed in the opposite direction.
• It follows that force F1 may be subtracted from force F2 by
reversing F1, adding it to force F2 by any of the various
methods previously discussed.
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Examples and problems start on textbook page 42.
For the concurrent force system shown, find R = F1 + F2 - F3 by the rectangular component
method.
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