MechYr1 Chapter 8 ::

Introduction to Mechanics
jfrost@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk
www.drfrostmaths.com
@DrFrostMaths

Last modified: 5th August 2018

www.drfrostmaths.com Register now to interactively practise questions on this topic, including
past paper questions and extension questions (including MAT + UKMT).
Everything is completely free. Teachers: you can create student accounts (or students can register
Why not register? themselves), to set work, monitor progress and even create worksheets.

With questions by:

Dashboard with points,

trophies, notifications
and student progress.

Questions organised by topic,

difficulty and past paper.
Teaching videos with topic
tests to check understanding.
 Mechanics, broadly speaking, concerns motion, forces, and how the two interrelate.
This chapter just gives you an overview of what you’ll be covering in Year 1 and how it all
links together.

Forces Motion
At GCSE you may have encountered
You will later encounter force diagrams. This displacement-time and velocity-time graphs:
considers the forces acting at a particular point.
Some forces you might consider…

displacement
The gradient The gradient gives

velocity
gives the velocity the acceleration
Reaction force
(that prevents string
Friction object sinking
(which into the table!) The bridge! Area under graph
gives distance.
resists
motion)
Tension 𝐹 =𝑚𝑎 time time
object Newton’s 2nd Law
allows us to connect Given constant acceleration we have 5
table the force world ()
The weight of with the motion quantities of motion (“”):
the object. world (acceleration ) displacement which we will see are linked
if the object is
• Forces can be considered as vectors. moving.
initial velocity by various equations:
• The magnitude of the force vector gives the final velocity
‘size’ of the force. acceleration
• We often consider forces in a particular
direction. e.g. If the object above is stationary, time
the forces left must equal the force right, and
forces up equal forces down (Newton’s 1 st Law).
• Often we need to consider the forces at multiple 𝑎𝑇 𝑇 𝑎 If the acceleration is not constant, we can specify
displacement/velocity/acceleration as a function of time
different points if objects are connected, e.g. 4kg 3kg

with pulleys: and differentiate/integrate to change between them.

4𝑔 3𝑔
Modelling Assumptions
As with many areas of applied maths, we often have to make various modelling assumptions, to
make the maths cleaner or to use well-known mathematical approaches.
Here are common modelling assumptions often made in Mechanics: !

Particle
Dimensions of object
are negligible
Means: Mass of object
concentrated at single
point. Rotational
forces/air resistance
can be ignored.
Smooth/light pulley Fro Tip:
No friction.
Particularly make
Means: Tension the same in
note of
string either side of pulley.
underlined text!
Pulley has no mass.
Inextensible string
String does not stretch under load.
Means: Acceleration the same in any
connected objects.

Rough/Smooth surface
Means: Objects in contact with Rod
surface does/does not One dimension is negligible, like a pole or beam.
experience friction. Means: Mass is concentrated along line. Rigid.

Peg/Support
A support from which a body
can be suspended or rested.
Means: Dimensionless and
fixed. Can be rough or smooth
depending on question.
SI units
The SI units are a standard system of units, used internationally (“Système
International d’unités”). These are the ones you will use:

Quantity Unit Symbol

Mass kilogram kg
Length/Displacement metre m
Time Seconds s
Speed/Velocity metres per second m s-1
Acceleration metres per second m s-2
per second
Force/Weight newton N (= kg m s-2)

This unit is consistent with force

being mass acceleration
Vectors Scalars
In Mechanics you will often need to convert to/from the
scalar form of a quantity and the vector form.
Scalar Form Vector Form
𝐵 𝐵 Distance ?
Displacement

5m ( )
3
4
𝑚 Speed Velocity
?
Other quantities which can be
vectors or scalars:
𝐴 𝐴 Force, acceleration
?
! A scalar quantity ! A vector quantity also
has magnitude (i.e. has direction. Quantities which can only be
size) only. The vector equivalent of distance scalars:
Time, mass
The 5m is a distance.
The value is always positive.
is displacement.
?
Positive direction
Distance: 3m ?
Fro Note: 1-dimensional
vectors are still different
from scalars. Consider the
displacement on a 1- Displacement: -3m?
dimensional line in a
particular direction. If we’d
𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠h 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡 Note: we don’t write the brackets around 1D vectors.
gone backwards 3 units… 3m So 1D vectors look like scalars, except they’re allowed
to be positive or negative.
Vectors Scalars
Scalar Form Vector Form

𝐵 To convert to vector form, just

use basic trigonometry to find
5m
( 5 sin 60 °)? (
5 cos 60 ° = 2.5 𝑚
4.33 ) the -change and -change.
Fro Speed Tip: If is the magnitude, use for
60° the side adjacent to the angle and for the
side opposite it.
𝐴

Speed: Velocity: To convert scalar form, just

? find the magnitude of the
vector using Pythagoras.

45° Force vector:

? In the -direction
the force is acting
8𝑁 downwards.
Further Examples
Scalar Form Vector Form

6N
60° ( ) ( )
− 6 sin 60 ° = −3 √ 3 𝑁
− 6 cos 60 ° ? −3

Recall from Pure Year 1 that is another way of

writing , where and are unit vectors in the
positive and directions.

√ 2 ? 2
6 + ( −8 ) =10𝑚 𝑠
−2 ( 6 𝒊− 8 𝒋 ) 𝑚 𝑠 −2 𝒋
𝒊

Displacement:
30°
?
4𝑚
Test Your Understanding
[Textbook] A man walks from to and then from to .
His displacement from to is m.
His displacement from to is m.
(a) What is the magnitude of the displacement from to ?
(b) What is the total distance the man has walked in getting from to .

a
6 𝒊+ 4 𝒋 𝐵 ?
𝐴 5 𝒊 −12 𝒋 Total distance:
? Suitable Diagram b

?
𝐶
A raccoon has a velocity of . Determine the 3 Raccoon

angle the trajectory of the raccoon makes 𝜃 1

with the unit vector . ?
𝜃=tan − 1 ( )
1
3
=18.4 ° ( 3 𝑠𝑓 )
Exercise 8D
Pearson Stats/Mechanics Year 2
Pages 127-129