NPS 210 – Physics for Engineers

BODIES IN EQUILIBRIUM
Statics = the study of forces acting on bodies that are in equilibrium

Equilibrium = means “equal forces” or “balance”

Objects in equilibrium are objects that do not accelerate. They are either at rest or moving with
constant velocity.

Static equilibrium = if bodies are at rest

Dynamic equilibrium = if bodies move with constant velocity

The conditions for equilibrium:

1. For an object to be in translational equilibrium, the vector sum of all the forces ( the net force)
acting on it is zero.
ΣF = 0
 In terms of components:
ΣF x = 0 and
ΣF y = 0 and
ΣF z = 0

2. For an object to be in rotational equilibrium, the algebraic sum of the torques of all forces about
any axis perpendicular to the plane of the forces is zero.
Στ = 0
 The sum of the clockwise torques about any such axis is equal to the sum of the counterclockwise
torques about that axis.
clockwise + counterclockwise =0 or clockwise = counterclockwise

Center of gravity (cg) = the point of application of the gravitational force whose effect on the
rotation of the object is the
same as that of the individual particles

x cg =
∑ mi xi y cg =
∑ mi y i z cg =
∑ mi z i
∑ mi ∑ mi ∑ mi
 If g has the same value at all points on a body, its center of gravity is identical to its center
of mass.

center of mass (CM) = is that point at which all the mass of an object or system may be considered
to be concentrated
=the point at which the weight of the object may be considered to act

 The position of the center of mass of uniform regular solid is at its center.

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Sample Problems:
1. Three particles are located along the x-axis. m 1 = 5.0 kg at x1 = -5.00 m, m2 = 2.0 kg at x2 = 0, & m3 =
4.0 kg at x3 = 1.0 cm. Find the center of gravity of the particles.

2. A hanging lamp of weight 50 N hangs from a cord that is knotted at point O to two other cords, one
fastened to
the ceiling and one fastened to the wall as shown in Figure 1. Find the tension in these two cords
assuming the
weights of the cords to be negligible.

3. Find the tension (T) and W1 needed to keep the 120-N weight (W2) in equilibrium as shown in Figure 2.

60

T1 T1

T 30 m1

m2
Figure 1. Figure 2.

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4. The fulcrum of a seesaw 4.0 m long is located 2.5 m from one end. A person weighing 300 N sits on a
long end. What must the weight of the person sitting at the short end be to balance the seesaw?
Ignore the weight of the seesaw.

5. A uniform 1500-kg beam, 20.0 m long, supports a 15,000-kg printing press 5.0 m from the right
support column. Calculate the force on each of the vertical support columns.

6. Two 20-N weights are suspended at opposite ends of a rope that passes over a light frictionless pulley.
The pulley is attached to a chain that goes to the ceiling. a) What is the tension in the rope? b) What is
the tension in the chain?

7. A couple parked in a car on a moonlit evening find that their car is stuck in the sand. The woman,
having studied Physics, ties a rope to the car’s bumper and stretches it around a tree in front of the
car. She then pushes with a 290-N force against the center of the rope, causing it to deflect at an
angle of 5 with the horizontal. The car starts to move. Calculate the force of the rope on the car.

8. A 3.00- m long, 240-N, uniform rod at the zoo is held in a horizontal position by two ropes at its ends
(Figure 3). The left rope makes an angle of 150 with the rod and the right rope makes an angle  with
the horizontal. A 90-N howler monkey hangs motionless 0.50 m from the right end of the rod.
Calculate the tensions in the two ropes and the angle .
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 Figure 3 Figure 4

9.Two forces equal in magnitude and opposite in direction, acting on an object at two different points, form
what is called a couple. Two antiparallel forces with equal magnitudes F1 = F2 = 8.00 N are applied to a
rod (Figure4). What should the distance between the forces be if they are to provide a net torque of 6.40
N·m about the left end of the rod?

10. Sir Lancelot, who weighs 800 N, is assaulting a castle by climbing a uniform ladder that is 5.0 m long
and weighs 180 N
as shown in the figure below. The bottom of the ladder rests on a ledge and leans across the moat in
equilibrium against a frictionless, vertical castle wall. The ladder makes an angle of 53.1° with the
horizontal. Lancelot pauses one third of the way up the ladder. (a) Find the normal and friction forces
on the base of the ladder. (b) Find the minimum coefficient of static friction needed to prevent slipping
at the base. (c) Find the magnitude and direction of the contact force on the base of the ladder.

11. A 0.120-kg, 50.0-cm long uniform bar has a small 0.055-kg mass glued to its left end and a small
0.110-kg mass glued to the other end. The two small masses can be treated as point masses. You
want to balance this system horizontally on a fulcrum (the point on which a lever rests and on which
it pivots) placed just under its center of gravity. How far from the left end should the fulcrum be
placed?

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12. An auto magazine reports that a certain sports car has 53% of its weight on the front wheels and 47%
on its rear wheels. (That is, the total normal forces on the front and rear wheels are 0.53w and 0.47w,
respectively, where w is the car’s weight.) The distance between the axles is 2.46 m. How far in
front of the rear axle is the car’s center of gravity?

STRESS, STRAIN, AND ELASTIC MODULI

The rigid body is a useful idealized model, but the stretching, squeezing, and twisting of real bodies when
forces are applied are often too important to ignore. The relationship of force and the deformation it
causes is worth studying.

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Stress = characterizes the strength of the forces causing the deformation, on a “force per unit area”
basis.
Strain = describes the resulting deformation, from the ratio of the elongation to the original length

When the stress and strain are small enough, the two are directly proportional, and the proportionality
constant is called the elastic modulus. The harder you pull on something, the more it stretches; the more
you squeeze it, the more it compresses. In equation form:

stress
=elastic modulus also called Hooke’s Law
strain
I. Tensile and Compressive Stress and Strain

tensile stress (at the cross section) = the ratio of the force F to the
cross-sectional
area A

F❑
Tensile stress=
A

N N
Unit: 2
= pascal(Pa) 1 2
=1 Pa
m m
French scientist and philosopher
Blaise Pascal

1 psi = 6895 Pa
1 Pa=1.450 x 10-4 psi

tensile strain (of the object) = the fractional change in length or stretch per unit
length.

∆l
Tensile strain= no unit (dimensionless)
lo

 Experiment shows that for a sufficiently small tensile stress, stress and strain are
proportional.
 The corresponding elastic modulus is called Young’s modulus, denoted by Y.
Tensile stress F ❑/ A F❑ l 0
Y= = =
Tensile strain ∆ l/l o A ∆l

When the forces on the ends of a bar are pushes rather than pulls, the bar is in compression and
the stress is a compressive stress. The compressive strain of an object in compression is defined in
the same way as the tensile strain, but has the opposite direction.

 In many situations, bodies can experience both tensile and

compressive stresses at the same time. As an example, a horizontal beam supported at each
end sags under its own weight. As a result, the top of the beam is under compression, while the
bottom of the beam is under
tension.

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II. Bulk Stress and Strain

When an object is immersed in a liquid, like water, the water exerts nearly uniform pressure everywhere
on the object’s surface and squeezes it to a slightly smaller volume. The stress is now a uniform pressure
on all sides, and the resulting deformation is a volume change. The terms bulk stress (or volume stress)
and bulk strain (or volume strain) are used to describe these quantities.

Bulk stress=∆ p change in pressure

∆V
Bulk strain= fractional change in volume
Vo

Bulk stress −∆ p
B= = Bulk modulus
Bulk strain ∆ V /V O

 The reciprocal of the bulk modulus is called the compressibility and is denoted by k.
1 −∆ V /V o
k= =
B ∆p
 Compressibility is the fractional decrease in volume per unit increase in pressure.

III. Shear Stress and Strain

F❑
Shear stress= the force F acting tangent to the
A
surface divided
by the area A on which it acts

x
Shear strain= the ratio of the displacement x to the
h
transverse
dimension h

 The corresponding elastic modulus (ratio of shear stress to

shear strain) is called the shear modulus, denoted by S:

Shear stress F ❑/ A F❑ h
S¿ = =
Shear strain x /h A x
Shear modulus
Note:
 For a given material, S is usually one-third to one-half as large as Young’s modulus Y for tensile
stress.
 Keep in mind that the concepts of shear stress, shear strain, and shear modulus apply to solid
materials only. The reason is that shear refers to deforming an object that has a definite shape.
This concept doesn’t apply to gases and liquids, which do not have definite shapes.

SAMPLE PROBLEMS:

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1. A steel rod 2.0 m long has a cross-sectional area of 0.30 cm2. It is hung by one end from a support,
and a 550-kg milling machine is hung from its other end. Determine the stress on the rod and the
resulting strain and elongation.

2. A hydraulic press contains 0.25 m3 (250 L) of oil. Find the decrease in the volume of the oil when it
is subjected to a pressure increase of 1.6 x 107 Pa (about 160 atm or 2300 psi). The bulk modulus of
the oil is 5.0 x 109 Pa (about 5.0 x 104 atm) and its compressibility is 20 x 10-6 atm-1.

3. Suppose the object under shear stress is the brass base plate of an outdoor sculpture that
experiences shear forces in an earthquake. The plate is 0.80 m square and 0.50 cm thick. What is
the force exerted on each of its edges if the resulting displacement x is 0.16 mm?