MALAWI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY (MUST)

UNIT-1: Force Systems

Mr. C. Daka
Lecturer in Physics
Department of Applied Studies
Malawi Institute of Technology (MIT)

Email: cdaka@must.ac.mw 1
 CONTENTS
 Introduction to Force  Couple
 Force System  Varignon’s Theorem
 Collinear forces  Resolution of force
 Concurrent Forces  Resultant of Coplanar –
 Law of Parallelogram Concurrent force
 Lami's Theorem  Free Body Diagram
 Principle of  Center of gravity &
Transmissibility Centroid
 Moment of Force  Moment of Inertia
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Introduction to Force
 Definition of ‘force’ can be given in several ways. Most
simply it can be defined as ‘the cause of change in the
state of motion of a particle or body’.

 It is of course, the product (multiplication) of mass of

the particle and its acceleration (i.e. F = ma).

 Force is the manifestation of action of one particle on

the other. It is a vector quantity.

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Introduction to Force Cont…
Quick Fact Check:

1. Force is a push or pull.

2. Force is the capacity to cause physical change.
3. Force = Mass times acceleration (F = ma)
4. A force is that which changes or tends to change the
state of rest or motion of a body.

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Force System
 If all the forces in a system lie in a
single plane through a single point,
they constitute a coplanar
concurrent force system. It is
possible to find a single force which
will have the same effect as that of
number of forces acting. Such
single force is called Resultant force
and the process of finding the
resultant force is called
composition of forces.
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Collinear Forces
 Forces that have the same line of action.
 May act in same or different directions.

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Concurrent Forces
 Forces do not act along same
line, but do act through the
same point.
 In physics, concurrent forces are
defined as forces that pass
through a common point.
 In other words, a concurrent
force system is a set of two or
more forces whose lines of
action intersect at a point at the
same time.
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Coplanar Forces
 Coplanar force systems have all the forces acting in in
one plane. They may be concurrent, parallel, non-
concurrent or non-parallel.
 A concurrent coplanar force system is a system of two
or more forces whose lines of action ALL intersect at a
common point.
 A parallel coplanar force system consists of two or more
forces whose lines of action are ALL parallel.
 Non-concurrent and non-parallel system consists of a
number of vectors that do not meet at a single point
and none of them are parallel.
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System of Coplanar Forces

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 Law of Parallelogram
PROOF
 This law is applicable to determine
the resultant of two coplanar
concurrent forces only. This law states
―If two forces acting at a point are
represented both in magnitude and
direction by the two adjacent sides
of a parallelogram, then the resultant
of the two forces is represented both
in magnitude and direction by the
diagonal of the parallelogram
passing through the same point.”
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 Law of Parallelogram Example

𝑅2 = 𝑃2 + 𝑄2 + 2𝑃𝑄𝑐𝑜𝑠θ

𝑅2 = (80𝑁)2 +(50𝑁)2 +2 80𝑁 50𝑁 𝑐𝑜𝑠600 => 𝑹 = 𝟏𝟏𝟑. 𝟓𝑵

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Lami’s Theorem
 If a body is in equilibrium under the action of only three
forces, each force is proportional to the sine of the
angle between the other two forces.

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Principle of Transmissibility
 States that the conditions of equilibrium or conditions of
motion of a rigid body will remain unchanged if a force
acting at a give point of the rigid body is replaced by a
force of the same magnitude and same direction, but
acting at a different point, provided that the two forces
have the same line of action.

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 Moment of Force (or Torque)
 Moment of force about a point is the
measure of rotational effect of the force.
Moment of a force about a point is
defined as the product of the magnitude
of the force and the perpendicular
distance (M=Fr)of the point from the line
of action of the force.
 The point about which the moment is
considered is called moment center and
the perpendicular distance of the point
from the line of action of the force is
called moment arm. 14
Moment of Force Example

Moment = F x r

NB: θ = 90⁰

Moment = F x r sinθ

NB: θ ≠ 90⁰

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 Couple
 A couple is a pair of forces, equal in magnitude,
oppositely directed, and displaced by perpendicular
distance or moment. The simplest kind of couple consists
of two equal and opposite force whose lines of action do
not coincide. This is called a "simple couple".

 The forces have a turning effect or moment called a

torque about an axis which is normal (perpendicular) to
the plane of the forces. The SI unit for the torque of the
couple is newton meter (Nm).

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Couple Cont…
 The direction of torque is always perpendicular to
plane of rotation of body as a cross product is in
perpendicular plane to S and F vectors and the
torques produced by two forces of couple are in same
direction to each other.

Couple = F x S

Where:
F = Magnitude of force
Simple Couple
S = Perpendicular distance
between the two forces 17
 Varignon’s theorem
 French mathematician Varignon(1654-1722) gave the
following which is also known as principles of moments:
 The algebraic sum of moments of a system of coplanar
forces about a moment center is equal to the moment of
their resultant force about the same moment center.

M 0 = r x F1 + r x F2 = r x F

Where: F = F1 + F2

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 Resolution of Forces
 Finding the components of a given force in two given
direction is called resolution. These component forces will
have the same effect on the body as given single force.

A single force F can be resolved into

two components.
a) Horizontal Force = F cosθ
b) Vertical Force = F sinθ

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 Resultant of Coplanar-Concurrent Forces
 The analytical method is based on theorem of resolved
parts which states that: “The algebraic sum of the
resolved parts of two forces in a given direction is equal
to the resolved part of their resultant in the same
direction.”

2 2
𝑅= 𝐹𝑥 + 𝐹𝑦 = 𝑅𝑥 + 𝑅𝑦

𝐹𝑦 𝑅𝑦
𝑡𝑎𝑛𝜃𝑥 = =
𝐹𝑥 𝑅𝑥

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 Free Body Diagram
 The force analysis of a structure is made in a simplified
way by considering the equilibrium of a portion of the
structure. For that, the portion is drawn separately
showing applied forces, self weight and reactions at the
point of contact with other bodies. The resulting diagram
is known as free body diagram (FBD).

 In a FBD, all the supports (like walls ,floors, hinges etc.) are
removed and replaced by the reactions which these
supported exert on the body.

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Free Body Diagram Examples

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 Center of Gravity
 The center of gravity (CG) is the point at which all the
mass of the body may be assumed to be concentrated.
 The point through which the force of gravity is considered
to act vertically downwards, with a force equal to the
weight of the body. The point about which the body
would balance. The center of gravity of a homogeneous
body is at its geometrical center.

CG CG CG

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 Centroids
 The centroid of an
area is situated at its
geometrical center. In
each of the following
figures ‘G’ represents
the centroid, and if
each area was
suspended from this
point it would
balance.

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 Moment of Inertia
 In Physics, the Moment of inertia (I) is the name given to
rotational inertia, the rotational analog of mass for linear
motion. It appears in the relationships for the dynamics of
rotational motion. The moment of inertia must be specified
with respect to a chosen axis of rotation. For a point mass, the
moment of inertia is just the mass times the square of
perpendicular distance to the rotation axis, I = mr2.
 The moment of inertia of any extended object is built up from
that basic definition. The general form of the moment of
inertia involves an integral. 𝑴

𝑰= 𝒓𝟐 𝒅𝒎
𝟎
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Common Moments of Inertia

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 THANK YOU ALL!!!

”When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.“
- Max Planck -

Email: cdaka@must.ac.mw 27