3.4.1 Mechanics Flashcards
What is a scalar quantity?
A physical quantity with just magnitude
What is a vector quantity?
A physical quantity with both direction and magnitude
What sort of quantity is distance?
Scalar
What sort of quantity is mass?
Scalar
What sort of quantity is temperature?
Scalar
What sort of quantity is speed?
Scalar
What sort of quantity is displacement?
Vector
What sort of quantity is velocity?
Vector
What sort of quantity is acceleration?
Vector
What sort of quantity is weight?
Vector
What sort of quantity is force?
Vector
When vectors are at a right angle to each other how can you add them? (2)
Pythagoras
Trigonometry
What is a method of adding vectors which may have angles greater than 90 degrees?
Scale drawing
What does it mean when a force triangle is closed?
The forces are in equilibrium
With regards to motion, what does it mean when an object is in equilibrium? (2)
The object is at rest and not moving, or moving at a constant velocity
What is the moment of a force?
Force x the perpendicular distance from the line of action of the force to the point
What does coplanar mean?
Forces within the same plane
What is couple?
A pair of equal and opposite coplanar forces
What is a moment of a couple?
One of the forces x perpendicular distance between the lines of action of the forces
What is the principle of moments?
For an object to be in equilibrium, all anticlockwise moments = all clockwise moments
What is the centre of mass of an object?
The point which an objects mass acts
If an object is uniform where is it’s centre of mass?
Exactly at the centre of the object