Md Mahfujul Islam

Lecturer
Email: mahfujul.ged@diu.edu.bd
Dept.of GED(Physics)
Daffodil international university

Chapter 01

What is mechanics?

The study of Physics begins with mechanics. Mechanics is the science which describes and predicts the
conditions of rest or motion of bodies under the action of forces. In a word, it is the branch of Physics
dealing with the study of motion.

(Mechanics is the foundation of most engineering sciences and is a vital requirement to their study)

Mechanics can be divided into 2 areas -statics, dealing with describing motions, and dynamics, dealing
with the causes of motion.

Mechanics

statics Dynamics

statics describes quantitatively how a body moves through space.

We’ll begin by treating the body as rigid and non-rotating, so we can fully describe the motion by following
its center.

Dynamics accounts for the observed motion in terms of forces.

Reference point and Frame of Reference:To measure motion, we must first measure position. We
measure position relative to some fixed point O, called the origin.A reference point is something that we
use to determine the position of an object but the reference point has to be something that doesn’t move
at all. This point is also known as “origin” and in fig 1 the reference point is denoted by “O”.

On the other hand, frame of reference refers to a system of coordinates and measures of the body position
and other properties in it. Frame of reference is relative to all motions.
 Fig 1: Frame of reference.

We give the ball’s location as (x, y, z): we reach it from O by moving x meters along the x-axis, followed by
y parallel to the y-axis and finally z parallel to the z-axis.

Motion:

The motion of a particle is defined as the change of its position with respect to time and its reference
point. Motion is typically described in terms of displacement, direction, velocity, acceleration,
and time. Motion is observed by attaching a frame of reference to a body and measuring its change in
position relative to that frame.

Displacement and the one dimensional motion:

Consider a body moving in 1 dimension: e.g., a train traveling down a straight railroad track. Suppose
that we have a team of observers who continually report the location of this body to us as time
progresses. To be more exact, our observers report the distance of the body from some arbitrarily
chosen reference point located on the track on which it is constrained to move. This point is known as
the origin of our coordinate system. Here, implies that the body is located meters to the right of
the origin and considered as the displacement of the body from the origin.

X1 X2

Fig-2: Motion in one dimention.

In fig-2, the displacement along the railroad has both magnitude and direction. That means displacement
is a vector.If the displacement ∆ x = x2 – x1, its magnetude can be writtend as

|Δx| = |x2 – x1|.

Whereas, direction is indicated by attaching an arrowhead.

Motion in two dimentions or motion in a plane:

In this case the motion of a particle can b described in dimentions by a numbers of variables, such as
positions vector, time, velocity and accelaration etc. The polar co-ordinator systems are mainly used to
deduce the relationship between the variables.

Velocity:

Average velocity can be defined as the displacement divided by the time. For the special case of straight
line motion in the X direction, the average velocity takes the form
The units for velocity can be implied form the defination to be meters(m)/Second(s) or in general any
distance unit over any time unit.

Whereas, the instaneous velocity at any point on the path by taking the limit as the time interval gets
smaller and smaller.Such a limiting process is called a derivative and the instantanous velocity can be
defined as

Acceleration:

The velocity of a particle may change in magnitude or in direction as it moves. The change in velocity with
time is called acceleration. Acceleration is inherently a vector quantity, and an object will have non-zero
acceleration of its speed and/or direction is changing. The units for acceleration can be implied from the
definition to be meters/second square, usually m/s2.

We can define the average acceleration as the change in velocity per unit time, or mathematically it can be
written as

The direction of the average acceleration aavis the same as the direction of ∆V.

Instantaneous acceleration at any time may be obtained by taking the limit of the average acceleration
as the time interval approaches zero. This is the derivative of the velocity with respect to time:
The acceleration at time t1 is the slope of the

Velocity graph V (t) at that time.

Constant acceleration means the rate of change of velocity is constant. Mathematically

dv
Constant acceleration, a = = constant.
dt

The equations of motion:

The equations of motion are valid only when acceleration is constant and motion is constrained to a
straight line. Our goal in this section is to derive new equations that can be used to describe the motion of
an object in terms of its three kinematic variables: velocity, displacement, and time. There are three ways
to pair them up: velocity-time, displacement-time, and velocity-displacement. In this order, they are
also often called the first, second, and third equations of motion, but there is no compelling reason to
learn these names. Since we are dealing with motion in a straight line, the symbol x will be used for
displacement. Direction will be indicated by the sign (positive quantities point in +x direction, while
negative quantities point in the −x direction).

Before we start to derive the equations of motion, it is important to make sure we know the standard
symbols and units for describing the movement of an object. Conventionally, we use the following
symbols to represent the properties of an object.

Property Symbol Unit

Displacement/distance S(= x-x0) meter (m)
Initial velocity u/v0 Meter/second (ms-1 )
Final velocity v Meter/second (ms-1)
Acceleration a Meter/second2 (ms-2)
Time t Second (s)

Velocity-time equation:

Consider a body of mass “m” having initial velocity “v 0”.Let after time “t” its final velocity becomes “v” due
to uniform acceleration “a”.

According to the definition of acceleration,

Acceleration = change in velocity/Time taken

Acceleration = Final velocity-Initial velocity / time taken

 ∆v v−v 0
a= =
∆t t −0

v=v 0 + at ……….. (1)

This is our first equation of motion.

Second equation of motion:

Let the distance travelled by the body be “s”.

We know that
Distance = Average velocity X Time

v + v0
Also, Average velocity =
2

v + v0
Distance, s = x t …….eq. (2)
2

Again we know that:

v = v0 + at
substituting this value of “v” in eq.(2), we get

v 0 + v 0+ at
s= xt
2
(2 v 0 + at)
s= xt
2
2 v 0 t +a t 2
s=
2
1
s = v0t + at2 ……………………. (3)
2

This is the 2nd equation of motion.

…………………………………………

3rd equation of motion:

We start with squaring equation (1). Thus we have

v2 = (v0+at)2

=> v2 = v02 + a2t2 + 2v0a2t2

=> v2 = v02 + 2v0a2t2 + a2t2

1 2
=> v2 = v02 + 2a (v0t + at )
2

Now, using equation 2, we have

=> v2 = v02 + 2as (4)

As you can see, the above equation gives a relation between the final velocity v of the body and the
distance s traveled by the body.

Thus, we have the three Newton's equations of Motion as

1) v = v0 + at

1 2
2)s = x-x0 = v0t + at
2

3) v2= v02+ 2as

Newton’s law of motion:

Isaac Newton (a 17th century scientist) put forth a variety of laws that explain why objects move (or don't
move) as they do. These three laws have become known as Newton's three laws of motion.

First law: 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.

The tendency of a body to remain at rest or in uniform linear motion is called inertia, and Newton’s first
law is often called the law of inertia.

Basically what Newton's First Law is saying is that objects behave predictably. If a ball is sitting on your
table, it isn't going to start rolling or fall off the table unless a force acts upon it to cause it to do so.
Moving objects don't change their direction unless a force causes them to move from their path.

Newton's Second Law of Motion:

Newton's Second Law of Motion states that when a force acts on an object, it will cause the object to
accelerate. The larger the mass of the object, the greater the force will need to be to cause it to accelerate.
This Law may be written as force = mass x acceleration or:

F=ma

If you apply more force to an object, it accelerates at a higher rate.

 Fig: Example of Newton’s second law

If the same force is applied to an object with greater mass, the object accelerates at a slower rate because
mass adds inertia.

Newton's Third Law of Motion

Netwon's third Law of Motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

What this means is that pushing on an object causes that object to push back against you, the exact
same amount, but in the opposite direction.