EN122 ENGINEERING MECHANICS
Semester II, 2024
Lecture Notes
Week 1-2
1. Introduction
1.1 Engineering Mechanics is basically a
branch of mechanics associated with the
study of forces acting on rigid bodies.
Such forces mat keep the body at rest or
in motion
1.2 Basic Idealizations: Particles,
Continuum and Rigid Bodies
What is a body or a system?
• A body has its distinct mass which is
continuously distributed all over its
entire volume
• A body can also be called a system.
E.g. Locomotive has various
engineering components like piston,
crank, connecting rod, chassis,
wheels etc.
Fig.1. Pictorial Chart describing Mechanics
The different idealizations of bodies are:
• An individual body whose size does not affect the analysis of forces acting on it-a point of concentrated mass.
E.g. A helicopter flying at high altitude observed from ground, a football viewed by spectators.
• Continuum-The concept of a continuum allows for the analysis and measurement of the average behavior of bodies,
assuming a continuous distribution of matter, whether rigid or deformable, as the individual forces on atoms and
molecules within a body are too complex to analyze.
• Rigid body-A rigid body does not deform under actions of forces. E.g. Strings and fan belts are assumed to stress
less and treated as rigid bodies under application.
1.3 Units
Engineering mechanics involves studying physical phenomena and experimental results that are quantified with units
attached to each physical quantity. Measurements of physical quantities are comparisons against reference standards,
where the magnitude of the quantity is expressed in relation to the specified international standard unit. E.g. Mass
(20kg)
Types of Units:
1. Fundamental or Basic Units
• Fundamental or base units are fixed and distinct units representing unchangeable quantities, such as length
(measured in meters), time (measured in seconds), and mass (measured in kilograms), which are crucial in the
field of mechanics.
• Derived units are units that are derived from or depend on fundamental or base units, such as force, work,
power, density, area, volume, velocity, and acceleration.
Systems of units.
There are four systems of units which are as follows:
1. Metre-Kilogram-Second (M.K.S.) system
2. Centimetre-Gram-Second (C.G.S.) system
3. Foot-Pound-Second (F.P.S.) system
4. International System (S.I.) system
Table 1.1 SI Units
Scalar and Vector Quantities
Engineering mechanics divides all quantities into scalar and vector quantities.
Scalar quantities are those that can be fully described by their magnitude alone, without any reference to direction,
and examples include mass, length, volume, power, temperature, and time, where specifying the magnitude alone is
sufficient for providing the necessary information, like asking a shopkeeper to pack 2 kg of potatoes.
Vector quantities, such as force, displacement, and momentum, cannot be fully described by magnitude alone. They
require both magnitude and direction for a complete description. For instance, stating the direction as clockwise or
anticlockwise when applying a 20 Nm couple on a bottle cap provides the necessary information, as these quantities
are defined by both magnitude and direction.
Force and its Characteristics
A force is a vector quantity that generates interaction between bodies. It changes or tends to shift the position of a body
whether it is at rest or in motion. A force can cause a body to push, pull, or twist. A force is defined by four
characteristics: magnitude, place of application, line of action, and sense.
Force Systems
A force system is a collection, pattern, or grouping of different forces acting on a rigid body. It is divided into two
forms based on the amount of forces acting in planes.
Classification of force systems
The two systems of forces include:
a) Coplanar force system
(i) Concurrent coplanar force system
(ii) Collinear coplanar force system
(iii) Parallel coplanar force system
(iv) Non-parallel coplanar force system
b) Non-coplanar force system
(i) Concurrent non-coplanar force system
(ii) Non-parallel non-coplanar force system
(iii) Parallel non-coplanar force system
Laws of Mechanics
The basic laws for laying foundation of Mechanics:
• Law of motion
i) Newton’s First law: A particle always continues to remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line in the
absence of applied force. This law is also known as the law of inertia
ii) Newton’s Second law: If a particle is subjected to force, the magnitude of the acceleration will be directly
proportional to the magnitude of the force and inversely proportional to the mass and lies in the direction of the
force
iii) Newton’s Third law: Every action is encountered with equal and opposite reaction, or two interacting bodies have
forces of action and reaction collinearly equal in
magnitude but opposite in direction
• The gravitational Law of Attraction
Newton developed this law, and the gravitational force on a body computed using this formula represents the body's
weight.
Multiplication of vectors
There are two types:
i) Dot Product
The dot product of two vectors is equal to the product of their magnitudes and the cosine of the angle between
them.
(a scalar quantity)
It can be observed from Fig. 1,
Thus it can be concluded that the dot product of two vectors is Fig. 1. Projection of Vectors in dot product
the product of magnitude of one vector and the projection of
another vector over the initial vector.
ii) Cross or Vector Product
Consider Fig. 2. where the magnitude of cross product is showngraphically:
Fig. 2. Projection of Vectors in cross product
Vectorial representation of component of force
3.
Fig. 3. Component of a force in three dimensions
Vectorial representation of force passing through two points in space
4.
Fig.4.
Fig. 4. Force passing through two points in space
