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(C) 2005 Pearson Education South Asia Pte Ltd

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Engineering Mechanics
CE(1101)

Credit Hours
Total = 4
Theory = 3
Practical = 1
Course Learning Outcomes
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 Mapping
Taxonomy Allocated Mapped
Description
Level Percentage PLO
CLO-1: Describe the basic laws and
C2 25% PLO-01
principles of mechanics
CLO-2: Apply knowledge of
equilibrium and produce shear force
C3 50% PLO-02
and bending moment diagrams
manually.
CLO-3: Demonstrate fundamental
concepts of engineering mechanics P4 15% PLO-09
using relevant apparatus.
CLO-4: Communicate and answer
freely concepts of Engineering A2 10% PLO-10
mechanics in conducted experiments.
Course Content
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 Basic Concepts: Concepts of space, time, mass, velocity,

acceleration and force. Scalar and vector quantities,
Newton's laws of motion, law of gravitation.
 System of Forces: Resultant and resolution of co-planer
forces using parallelogram, triangle and polygon law and
funicular polygon. Simple cases of Resultant and
resolution of forces in space. Conditions of equilibrium of
co-planar forces, analytical and graphical formulations.
 Equilibrium of Rigid Bodies: Free body concept,
conditions of support and attachment to other bodies,
Support Reactions, Degree of restraint and static
determinacy. Statically determinate problems especially
of civil engineering importance involving equilibrium of
two-force and three-force bodies.
Course Content
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 Kinematics: Work, energy and power. Virtual work

formulation of equilibrium of coplanar forces. Potential
energy, energy criterion for equilibrium, stability of
equilibrium, application to simple cases.
 Rigid Bodies: Geometrical properties of plane areas, first
moment of area, centroid, second moment of area,
principal axes, polar second moment of area and radius
of gyration.
 Friction: Coulomb's theory of friction. Problems
involving friction on flat and curved surfaces.
 Introduction to practical use of the above principles and
properties.
Recommended Books
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Text Books
1. Engineering Mechanics: Statics, J.L Meriam, 7th Edition,
(2011)
2. Engineering Mechanics, R.C. Hibbeler, Prentice Hall, 14th
Edition, (2015)
Reference Books
1. Engineering Mechanics, F.L. Singer, Harper and Row
Publisher, 4th Edition, (1987)
2. Vector Mechanics for Engineers, Ferdinand P. Beer and E.
Russell Johnston Jr., McGraw-Hill College, (2005)
Introduction
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“Mechanics is a branch of physical sciences that is

concerned with the state of rest or motion of bodies
that are subjected to the action of forces”

 Main branches of mechanics are as following

Mechanics of rigid bodies
Mechanics of deformable bodies
Mechanics of Fluids
BRANCHES OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS
Engineering & Mechanics
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 Rigid-body Mechanics is divided into two areas:

 Statics – the study of objects in equilibrium (those

that are either at rest or move with a constant
velocity)
 Dynamics – the study of accelerated motion of
objects
 Statics considered as a special case of dynamics, in
which the acceleration is zero.
 In engineering education statics is separately treated
because since many objects are designed with the
intention that they remain in equilibrium.
Engineering & Mechanics
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 Applications in many fields of Engineering

 Statics: Equilibrium equations
 Designing structures (Mechanical & Civil)
 Dynamics: Motion equations
 Analyze responses of buildings to earthquakes
(Civil)
 Determine trajectories of satellites (Aerospace)
Engineering & Mechanics
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Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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The basic concepts used in mechanics are space, time,

mass and force.
 Space & Time
 Length:

 Itis used to locate the position of a point in space &

thereby describe the size of a physical system.
 Once a standard unit of length is defined, one can then
use it to define distances (Distance between 2 points in
space = length of the straight line joining them) and
geometric properties of a body as multiples of this unit.
 SI unit of length: meter (m)U.S. Customary unit: foot (ft)
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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 Space & Time

 Time:

 To define an event, it is not sufficient to indicate its

position in space. The time of the event should also
be given.
 Measured by the intervals between repeatable
events.
 SI unit & U.S. Customary unit of time: second (s)
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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 Position of a point in space relative to some

reference point changes with time:
 Rate of change of position = velocity
 SIunit: meters per second (m/s)
 U.S. Customary unit: feet per second (ft/s)
 Rate of change of velocity = acceleration
 SI unit: meters per second squared (m/s2)
 U.S. Customary unit: feet per second squared
(ft/s2)
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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 Mass:
 It is a measure of a quantity of matter. This property
manifests itself as a gravitational attraction
(F=Gm1m2/r2) between two bodies and provides a
measure of the resistance of matter to a change in
velocity.
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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 Force:
 It is considered as a “push” or “pull” exerted by one
body on another.
This interaction can occur when there is direct contact
between the bodies, such as a person pushing on a
wall.
Or it can occur on a body when the bodies are
physically separated. Examples are gravitational,
electrical and magnetic forces.
Force is completely characterized by its magnitude,
direction and point of application.
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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 The conditions of rest and motion of particles and

rigid bodies will be studied in terms of four basic
concepts we have introduced.
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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The study of elementary mechanics rests on six

fundamental principles based on experimental evidence.

1. The Parallelogram Law of addition of forces.

2. The Principle of Transmissibility.
3,4 and 5. Newton’s Three Fundamental Laws.
6. Newton’s Law of Gravitation.
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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1. The Parallelogram Law of addition of forces:

This states that two forces acting on a particle may be
replaced by a single force, called their resultant ,
obtained by drawing the diagonal of the parallelogram
which has sides equal to the given forces.
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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2. The Principle of Transmissibility:

The principle of transmissibility
states that the conditions of
equilibrium or motion of a rigid
body will remain unchanged if a
force F acting at a given point of
the rigid body is replaced by a
force F’ of the same magnitude
and same direction, but acting at a different point, provided
that the two forces have the same line of action. The two
forces F and F’ have the same effect on the rigid body and
are said to be equivalent .
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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3. Newton’s 1st Law of Motion

A particle originally at rest, or moving in a straight line
with constant velocity will remain in this state provided
particle is not subjected to an unbalanced force.
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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4. Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion

A particle acted upon by an unbalanced force F
experiences an acceleration a that has the same direction
as the force and a magnitude that is directly proportional
to the force.

F=m.a
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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5. Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion

The mutual forces exerted by 2 particles on each other
are equal in magnitude & opposite in direction. The
particles remains in state of equilibrium only if exerted
forces on them are collinear
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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6. Newton’s Law of Gravitation:

Gravitational force between 2
particles of mass m1 & m2 that are
separated by a distance r is:

Gm1m2
F
r2

where G = universal gravitational

constant
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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Weight of an object of mass m due to the gravitational

attraction of the earth is approximated by:

where Me = mass of earth,

r = distance from the center of earth to the object
Letting g = GMe/r2 yields:

W = mg
By comparison with F = ma,
We can see that g is the acceleration due to gravity.
Fundamental Concepts & Principles
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Since it depends on r, then the weight of the body is not

an absolute quantity.
The value of g varies from location to location on the
surface of the earth. So, its magnitude is determined
from where the measurement is made.
For most engineering calculations, however, g is
determined at sea level at a latitude of 45 ̊ , which is
considered as “standard location.”
g = 9.81 m/s2 (SI units)
g= 32.2 ft/s² (FPS units)
Systems of units
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Very important for Engineers

SI (System international ) is used in Europe
FPS (Foot pound System) is used in USA
Be careful when switching from one system
to the other
SI Units
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1. Modern version of metric system.

2. Base units are length in meter (m), time in
second (s) and mass in kilogram (kg)
3. Acceleration of gravity:
m
g  9.81 2
s

Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020

SI Units
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4. Force is derived quantity measured in unit

called a newton (N)
Newton is derived from F = ma
1 Newton is equal to a force required to give 1
kilogram of mass an acceleration of 1 m/s2.

m
N  kg. 2
s

Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020

SI Units
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If the weight of a body located at the “standard

location” is to be determined in newtons, then Eq.
W = mg is applied. Here, g = 9.81m/s2.
Therefore, a body of mass 1 kg has a weight of
9.81 N.

kg  m
1N 1 2
s
Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020
U.S. Customary Units (fps)
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1. Base units are length in feet (ft), time in second

(s) and force in pound (lb).

2. Acceleration of gravity:

g  32.2 ft 2
s

Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020

U.S. Customary Units (fps)
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4. Mass is derived quantity measured in a unit

called a slug.
Unit of mass is derived from F = ma.
1 slug is equal to the amount of matter
accelerated at 1 ft/s2 when acted upon by a
force of 1 lb.
s2
slug  lb.
ft
Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020
U.S. Customary Units (fps)
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If the measurements are made at the “standard

location”, where g = 32.2 ft/s2. then from Eq.
W
m
g

And so a body weighing

32.2 lb has a mass of 1 slug.

Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020

Systems of Units
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Name Length Time Mass Force

meter second kilogram newton

SI (m) (s) (kg) (N)

US foot second slug pound

Customary (ft) (s) (lb.s2/ft) (lb)

Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020

UnitConversions
Unit Conversions
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Force : 1 lb  4.4482 N
Mass : 1 slug  14.5938 kg
Length : 1 ft  0.3048 m

Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020

Units
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Angular Units:
Angles are normally
expressed in radians (rad)
Defined to be the ratio of the part of
the circumference subtended by θ to the
radius of the circle
Angles are also expressed in degrees:

360  2π rad
Units
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Conversion of Units:
Values must be expressed in terms of one system of
units before they are substituted into the equation
Convert 2 km/h to m/s. How many ft/s
km  1000 m   1 h 
2
2 km is this?     
h
SOLUTION: h  km  3600 s 
Since 1 km = 1000 m and 1 h = 3600 s, the conversion
factors2000 m
are arranged so that a cancellation of units can

2 km be applied.  0.555 5  0.556 m
h 3600 s s

m m 1 ft  ft ft
0.556  0.556    1.824  1.82
s s  0.3048 m  s s
 e.g. to express
Recall that 11ftmi/h in terms
= 0.3038 m of ft/s:


1 mi/h  1 mi/h  
5280 ft   1 h 
   1.47 ft/s
 1 mi   3600 s 
Prefixes for SI units
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Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020

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Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020

Dimensional Homogeneity
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Each of the terms of an equation must be

expressed in the same units.
s = v t + 1/2 a t2
s is position in meters
v is velocity in m/s
a is acceleration in m/s2
t is time in seconds
m = m/s  s + m/s2  s2 = m

Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020

Significant Figures
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Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020

Rounding Off Numbers
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(C) 2005 Pearson Education South Asia Pte Ltd

Calculations
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 When performing calculations retain a

greater number of digits than the
problem data.

 Engineers usually round off final answer

to three significant figures. Answer can
never have more significant figures than
given data!

Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020

Example
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2.56 x 10 67 x -8.33 x 10 -54

-21.3248 x 10 13
The proper form of common scientific notation
requires that the absolute value of the coefficient
be larger than 1 and less than 10.
-2.13248 x 10 14
-2.13 x 10 14

Chapter 1 General Principles 1/20/2020