Abstract
It is well known that, in accordance with Newton’s laws of motion, the effect of forces on bodies is to produce accelerated motion. For a body to remain at rest, then, it is necessary for the system of forces acting on it to be statically equivalent to the absence of forces. In this case, we say that the body is in equilibrium.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Non-central forces are encountered in electromagnetism and in certain complex particle interactions which involve more than two particles at a time.
- 2.
Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) was a Swiss mathematician and physicist.
- 3.
The word virtual here means “possible,” and a virtual displacement is thus a possible displacement but not necessarily the actual one.
- 4.
By a fixed frame we mean a combination of rigid bodies whose position in space remains unchanged.
- 5.
The reason for the quotes around “rough” is explained in Sect. 2.2.5. This constraint is effective only if the normal component of the contact force is a push.
- 6.
Tribology is the discipline concerned with the study of friction, lubrication, and wear.
- 7.
Charles–Augustin de Coulomb (1736–1806) was a French physicist.
- 8.
Guillaume Amontons (1663–1705) was a French scientist who formulated the law of friction well before Coulomb, though the principle was already known to Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519).
- 9.
This is the general definition, but “method of sections” is sometimes used in a restricted sense for a specific application of the method that will be discussed in Sect. 3.2.
- 10.
The symbol T is also used, depending on the context, to denote the tension in a cable or the tangential force at a frictional interface.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lubliner, J., Papadopoulos, P. (2014). Equilibrium. In: Introduction to Solid Mechanics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6768-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6768-7_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6767-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6768-7
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)