EN PH131 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Kinematics, Statics

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Engineering Physics
• Course: EN PH131
• Professor: Douglas Gingrich

Document Summary

Mechanics: a branch of physical sciences concerned with the state of rest or motion of bodies subjected to the action of forces. Statics: concerned with the equilibrium of a body that is either at rest or moves with constant velocity. Dynamics: deals with accelerated motion of a body. Kinematics: treats only the geometric aspects of the motion. Kinetics: analysis of the forces causing the motion. A particle has a mass but negligible size and shape. The kinematics of a particle is characterized by specifying, at any given instant, the particle"s positon, velocity, and acceleration. The straight-line path of a particle will be defined using a single coordinate axis s. The origin o on the path is a fixed point, and from this point the position coordinate s is used to specify the location of the particle at any given instant. The magnitude of s is the distance from o to the particle, usually measured in m or ft.