Equilibrium of Forces (Static

Equilibrium)
Objectives:
1. Resolving forces in two dimensions to study the static equilibrium situations on a force table.
2. To test whether the forces on a body at rest add to zero.
3. To experimentally verify the parallelogram law of vector addition by using a force table.
4. Addition of Forces.
5. To determine the mass of an object.
Materials/Apparatus: Drawing paper and pencil, flat wood board, three weight hangers,
pulleys, mass set, rings with strings, ruler and protractor.
 Introduction
The origin of the topic was the formulation of the parallelogram law in 1586 by the Flemish
mathematician, Simon Stevin (1548-1620). The development of vector mathematics by the American physicist,
Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839-1903) and the English physicist, Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925), in the last quarter
of the 19th century drew on the algebra of quaternions which had been formulated by the Irish mathematician
Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865). Still further development of vectors led to the mathematics used by
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) in his general theory of relativity.
A force is the push or pull that one object exerts on another. The essential properties of force are
summarized in Newton's three laws of motion, which you will learn more about in the lectures. Newton’s first
law states that an object at rest, or moving with constant motion, will remain at rest, or moving at constant
motion unless acted upon by an external force. One consequence of Newton's first law is that if an object is at
rest, the total force on it must be zero.
A force is characterized by both its magnitude and its direction. (Such quantities, which are
characterized by both magnitude and direction, are called vectors.) A force is conveniently represented by an
arrow that points in the direction of the force. The length of the arrow is chosen to represent the magnitude of
the force according to an arbitrary scale.
 Theory
For an object to be in equilibrium, two conditions must be met. The first condition is that
the sum of all forces acting on the object must equal zero (𝛴𝐹Ԧ = 0). The second
condition is that the sum of all torques acting on the object must be zero 𝛴𝜏Ԧ = 0.
Newton’s second law of motion states that the acceleration produced by a net force on an
object is directly proportional to the net force, is in the same direction as the net force, and
is inversely proportional to the mass of the object:
𝛴𝑭
𝒂 = 𝑜𝑟 𝛴𝑭 = 𝑚 𝒂 (1)
𝑚
where the bold faced letters represent vector quantities. For the case when an object is not
undergoing an acceleration (the velocity of the object is either 0, or the object is moving at
a constant velocity), then 𝛴𝑭 = 0, which is the first condition for equilibrium. The sum of
the forces, 𝛴𝑭, is the algebraic
sum of all the individual forces:
 𝛴𝑭 = 𝑭1 + 𝑭2 + 𝑭3 + . . . = 0 (2)
When several forces act on a point, their sum can be obtained according
to the rules of vector algebra. Graphically, the sum of two forces 𝑭 =
𝑭1 + 𝑭2 can be found by using the parallelogram rule illustrated in
figure 1 or equivalently, by the head-to-tail method illustrated in figure
1.
Fig. 3

The sum of the vectors can also be derived analytically by adding their
components:
𝐹𝑥 = 𝐹1𝑥 +𝐹2𝑥 , and 𝐹𝑦 = 𝐹1𝑦 + 𝐹2𝑦 .
When the two vectors are at right angles the magnitude of the resultant
may be determined using Pythagoras’ theorem. When the vectors are not
at right angles the magnitude is found using the cosine rule. It may be
pointed out to students that Pythagoras’ theorem is a special case of the
cosine rule. The cosine rule gives 𝑎 2 = 𝑏2 + 𝑐 2 − 2𝑏𝑐 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜃, where
𝜃 is the angle between b and c. If 𝜃 is a right angle, then 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜃 = 0 and
the formula becomes 𝑎 2 = 𝑏2 + 𝑐 2 It is also possible to find the
resultant in a particular case by scale drawing instead of by calculation.
 Procedures
An illustrative diagram of the experiment setup is shown below in fig. 4. Note the
masses (𝑚1 , 𝑚2 & 𝑚3 ) suspended from each thread. The aim is to calculate the
mass of 𝑚2 using three different methods:
1. From polygon of forces.
2. Analysis of force components (trigonometry).
3. Cosine law.

Fig. 4.
1. Make sure that the board is vertical.
2. Each pulley must be at the same distance from the board.
3. Tape a paper of paper onto the face of the board so that the paper is centred behind the centre of
three threads.
4. Tie three pieces of thread to each other and pass two of them over the upper pulleys leaving the
third to hang free. Tie a loop at the end of each piece of thread and suspend a mass hanger from
each loop.
5. Load each mass hanger with masses 𝑚1 and 𝑚3 (120 𝑔 for each side). Measure the angles 𝜃1 and
𝜃3 of the upper two pulleys with respect to horizon.
6. With a pencil, mark on the paper the position of each piece of thread by taking two points each
thread.
7. Draw force diagrams to scale. For example, 20 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚 = 1 𝑐𝑚. Use whatever scale works best to
give you the greatest plotting precision.
8. Draw the force vectors, 𝐹1, 𝐹2, and 𝐹3, for the condition of equilibrium found in step 7 by
inserting a piece of paper under the system and tracing the direction of the three cords which
connect the ring to 𝑚1, 𝑚2, and 𝑚3.
9. From the vector diagram you obtained, with 3 masses, use the polygon method to draw the
resultant vector (on the same sheet of graph paper). Measure the length of the resultant vector.
10- From the vector diagram you obtained, with 3 masses, calculate the resultant vector from the x-
and y components of each vector.
11- From the vector diagram you obtained, again with 3 masses, calculate the resultant vector by
using the cosine law.
12- Calculate the average value of the resultant vector found in steps 9, 10 and 11.
13- Calculate the percentage error (the accepted value of 𝑚2 = 200 𝑔).
14- Each person must submit his or her own paper, stapled to his/her own report.