SITI NORATIKAH CHE DERAMAN

ROOM: E1-5-8.4
[email protected]

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Aims
▪ To show how to add forces and resolve them into components.

▪ To express force and position in Cartesian vector form.

Expected Outcomes
▪ Able to add and resolve forces into components.

References
▪ Engineering Mechanics Statics, R.C. Hibbeler, 14th Edition, Prentice
Hall, 2016
▪ Engineering Mechanics Dynamics, R.C. Hibbeler, 14th Edition, Prentice
Hall, 2016

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Bloom’s Taxonomy Programme
Soft skills Assessment
No. Outcome Outcomes
C A P (KI) method
(PO)
Analyze forces and
moments and draw Quiz,
LO1 3 CT1 PO1
free body diagrams for Midterm Test
problems in statics

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Scalar
▪ A scalar is any positive or negative physical quantity that can be completely
specified by its magnitude. Examples of scalar quantities include length,
mass, and time.

Vectors
▪ A vector is any physical quantity that requires both a magnitude and a
direction for its complete description. Examples of vectors encountered in
statics are force, position, and moment. A vector is shown graphically by an
arrow.

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Multiplication and Division of a Vector by a Scalar
▪ If a vector is multiplied by a positive scalar, its magnitude is increased by
that amount.
▪ Multiplying by a negative scalar will also change the directional sense of the
vector.

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Vector Addition
▪ When adding two vectors together it is important to account for both their
magnitudes and their directions by using the parallelogram law of addition.

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Vector Addition
▪ Add B to A, using the triangle rule, which is a special case of the
parallelogram law, whereby vector B is added to vector A in a “head-to-tail”
fashion

▪ As a special case, if the two vectors A and B are collinear, i.e., both have the
same line of action, the parallelogram law reduces to an algebraic or scalar
addition R = A + B

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Vector Subtraction
▪ The resultant of the difference between two vectors A and B of the same
type may be expressed as

𝑅 ′ = 𝐴 − 𝐵 = 𝐴 + (−𝐵)

▪ Subtraction is therefore defined as a special case of addition, so the rules of

vector addition also apply to vector subtraction.

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Resultant Force
▪ The two component forces F1 and F2 acting
on the pin can be added together to form
the resultant force FR = F1 + F2.
▪ Using the triangle rule, the law of cosines
or the law of sines can be applied to the
triangle in order to obtain the magnitude of
the resultant force and its direction.

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Components of a Force
▪ Resolve a force into two components in order to study its pulling or pushing effect in
two specific directions.
▪ F is to be resolved into two components along the two members, defined by the u
and v axes.
▪ Parallelogram is constructed first, by drawing lines starting from the tip of F, one line
parallel to u, and the other line parallel to v.
▪ This parallelogram can then be reduced to a triangle, which represents the triangle
rule.
▪ The law of sines can then be applied to determine the unknown magnitudes of the
components.

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Addition of Several Forces
▪ If more than two forces are to be added, successive
applications of the parallelogram law can be
carried out in order to obtain the resultant force.
▪ If three forces F1, F2, F3 act at a point O, the resultant
of any two of the forces is found, say, F1 + F2—and
then this resultant is added to the third force,
yielding the resultant of all three forces; i.e., FR =
(F1 + F2) + F3.
▪ Using the parallelogram law to add more than two
forces, often requires extensive geometric and
trigonometric calculation to determine the
numerical values for the magnitude and direction
of the resultant.
▪ Instead, problems of this type are easily solved by
using the “rectangular component method”

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Parallelogram Law
▪ Two “component” forces F1 and F2 add according to the
parallelogram law, yielding a resultant force FR that forms the
diagonal of the parallelogram.
▪ If a force F is to be resolved into components along two axes u and
v, then start at the head of force F and construct lines parallel to the
axes, thereby forming the parallelogram. The sides of the
parallelogram represent the components, Fu and Fv.
▪ Label all the known and unknown force magnitudes and the angles
on the sketch and identify the two unknowns as the magnitude and
direction of FR, or the magnitudes of its components.
Trigonometry
▪ Redraw a half portion of the parallelogram to illustrate the
triangular head-to-tail addition of the components.
▪ From this triangle, the magnitude of the resultant force can be
determined using the law of cosines, and its direction is
determined from the law of sines. The magnitudes of two force
components are determined from the law of sines.

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 The screw eye in figure is subjected to two forces, F1 and F2.
Determine the magnitude and direction of the resultant force.

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Resolve the horizontal 270 N force in figure into components
acting along the 𝑢 and 𝑣 axes and determine the magnitudes of
these components.

270 N

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Determine the magnitude of the component force 𝐹 in figure and
the magnitude of the resultant force 𝐹𝑅 if 𝐹𝑅 is directed along the
positive 𝑦 axis.

200 N

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Scalar Notation
▪ The rectangular components of force 𝐹 are found using the
parallelogram law, so that 𝐹 = 𝐹𝑥 + 𝐹𝑦 .

𝐹𝑥 = 𝐹 cos 𝜃

𝐹𝑦 = 𝐹 sin 𝜃

▪ Instead of using the angle u, however, the direction of 𝐹 can also

be defined using a small “slope” triangle.

𝐹𝑥 𝑎 𝑎
= or 𝐹𝑥 = 𝐹
𝐹 𝑐 𝑐

𝐹𝑦 𝑏 𝑏
= or 𝐹𝑦 = −𝐹
𝐹 𝑐 𝑐
Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021
 Cartesian Vector Notation
▪ Possible to represent the 𝑥 and 𝑦 components of a force in terms of
Cartesian unit vectors 𝑖 and 𝑗.
▪ Called as unit vectors because they have a dimensionless
magnitude of 1.
▪ Can be used to designate the directions of the 𝑥 and 𝑦 axes.
▪ Since the magnitude of each component of 𝐹 is always a positive
quantity, which is represented by the (positive) scalars 𝐹𝑥 and
𝐹𝑦, then we can express F as a Cartesian vector,

𝐹 = 𝐹𝑥 𝑖 + 𝐹𝑦 𝑗

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 Coplanar Force Resultants
▪ Each force is first resolved into its 𝑥 and 𝑦 components, and then the
respective components are added using scalar algebra since they are
collinear.
▪ The resultant force is then formed by adding the resultant components
using the parallelogram law.

𝐹1 = 𝐹1𝑥 𝒊 + 𝐹1𝑦 𝒋
𝐹2 = −𝐹2𝑥 𝒊 + 𝐹2𝑦 𝒋
𝐹3 = 𝐹3𝑥 𝒊 − 𝐹3𝑦 𝒋

Vector resultant,

𝐹𝑅 = 𝐹1 + 𝐹2 + 𝐹3
= 𝐹1𝑥 𝒊 + 𝐹1𝑦 𝒋 −𝐹2𝑥 𝒊 + 𝐹2𝑦 𝒋 +𝐹3𝑥 𝒊 − 𝐹3𝑦 𝒋
= (𝐹1𝑥 −𝐹2𝑥 + 𝐹3𝑥 )𝒊 + (𝐹1𝑦 +𝐹2𝑦 − 𝐹3𝑦 )𝒋
= (𝐹𝑅𝑥 )𝒊 + (𝐹𝑅𝑦 )𝒋
Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021
 Coplanar Force Resultants (con’t)
▪ If scalar notation is used, then indicating the positive directions of
components along the 𝑥 and 𝑦 axes with symbolic arrows.

+ 𝐹𝑅 𝑥 = 𝐹1𝑥 − 𝐹2𝑥 + 𝐹3𝑥

+ 𝐹𝑅 𝑦 = 𝐹1𝑦 + 𝐹2𝑦 − 𝐹3𝑦

▪ The components of the resultant force of any

number of coplanar forces are represented
symbolically by the algebraic sum of the 𝑥 and 𝑦
components of all the forces.
𝐹𝑅 𝑥 = ෍ 𝐹𝑥
𝐹𝑅 = 𝐹𝑅 2
𝑥 + 𝐹𝑅 2
𝑦 Angle θ,
𝐹𝑅 = ෍ 𝐹𝑦 𝐹𝑅 𝑥
𝑦
𝜃 = tan−1
𝐹𝑅 𝑦
Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021
 Determine the x and y components of 𝐹1 and 𝐹2 acting on the
boom shown in figure. Express each force as a Cartesian vector.

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 The link in figure is subjected to two forces 𝐹1 and 𝐹2 . Determine
the magnitude and direction of the resultant force.

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 The end of the boom O in figure is subjected to three concurrent
and coplanar forces. Determine the magnitude and direction of
the resultant force.

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 𝐴𝑥 𝐴𝑦 𝐴𝑧
cos 𝛼 = , cos 𝛽 = , cos 𝛾 =
𝐴 𝐴 𝐴
𝐴 = 𝐴𝑥 + 𝐴𝑦 + 𝐴𝑧

𝐴 = 𝐴𝑥 𝑖 + 𝐴𝑦 𝑗 + 𝐴𝑧 𝑘 Rectangular
Components of a
Cartesian Vector Vector
Representation
Coordinate
Direction Angles
Cartesian Unit
Vectors Cartesian
vectors

Right-handed Magnitude of a
coordinate Cartesian Vector
system
Transverse 𝐴= 𝐴2𝑥 + 𝐴2𝑦 + 𝐴2𝑧
and Azmuth
Angles

𝐴 = 𝐴 sin 𝜃 cos 𝜃𝑖 + 𝐴 sin 𝜃 cos 𝜃𝑗 + 𝐴 sin 𝜃 cos 𝜃𝑘

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021
 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧 Coordinates
▪ Use a right-handed coordinate system to reference
the location of points in space. Then 𝑥, 𝑦 axes lie in the
horizontal plane.
▪ Points in space are located relative to the origin of
coordinates, 𝑂, by successive measurements along
the 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧 axes.
Position Vector, 𝑟
▪ Defined as a fixed vector which locates a point in
space relative to another point.
▪ For example, if 𝑟 extends from the origin of
coordinates, O, to point 𝑃(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧), then 𝑟 can be
expressed in Cartesian vector form as

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 ▪ A position vector locates one point in
space relative to another point.
▪ The easiest way to formulate the
components of a position vector is to
determine the distance and direction
that must be traveled along the
𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧 directions—going from the tail to
the head of the vector.
▪ A force 𝐹 acting in the direction of a
position vector 𝑟 can be represented in
Cartesian form if the unit vector 𝑢 of the
position vector is determined and it is
multiplied by the magnitude of the
force, i.e., 𝐹 = 𝐹𝒖 = 𝐹(𝒓/𝑟).

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 ▪ The dot product, which defines a particular method for “multiplying”
two vectors, can be used to solve the above-mentioned problems.
▪ The dot product of vectors A and B, written A • B and read “A dot B,” is
defined as the product of the magnitudes of A and B and the cosine of
the angle u between their tails.
𝐴 • 𝐵 = AB cos 𝜃
Laws of Operation
▪ Commutative law: A • B = B • A

▪ Multiplication by a scalar: 𝑎 (A • B) = (𝑎A) • B = A • (𝑎B)

▪ Distributive law: A • (B + D) = (A • B) + (A •D)

Cartesian Vector Formulation

▪ To determine the dot product of two Cartesian vectors, multiply their corresponding
x, y, z components and sum these products algebraically.
▪ Note that the result will be either a positive or negative scalar, or it could be zero.

𝐴 • 𝐵 = 𝐴𝑥 𝐵𝑥 + 𝐴𝑦 𝐵𝑦 + 𝐴𝑧 𝐵𝑧
Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021
 Applications
▪ The angle formed between two vectors or intersecting lines.

▪ The components of a vector parallel and perpendicular to a line.

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

 ▪ The dot product is used to determine the angle between two
vectors or the projection of a vector in a specified direction.
▪ If vectors 𝐴 and 𝐵 are expressed in Cartesian vector form, the
dot product is determined by multiplying the respective 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧
scalar components and algebraically adding the results, i.e.,
𝐴 • 𝐵 = 𝐴𝑥 𝐵𝑥 + 𝐴𝑦 𝐵𝑦 + 𝐴𝑧 𝐵𝑧
▪ From the definition of the dot product, the angle formed
between the tails of vectors 𝐴 and 𝐵 is u = cos −1 𝐴 • 𝐵/𝐴𝐵 .
▪ The magnitude of the projection of vector 𝐴 along a line aa
whose direction is specified by 𝑢𝑎 is determined from the dot
product 𝐴𝑎 = 𝐴 • 𝑢𝑎 .

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021

Department of Civil Engineering, IIUM sncd2021