TABLE OF CONTENTS Dr. Michael Taylor
| Note | The following outline notes are a summary of what can be found in all textbooks upon this subject. Since no one person's choice of summary can hope to match the needs of all students simultaneously, it is recommended that a favorite text be re-read in conjunction with these notes and that personal notes be appended to the text below. |
Determinate structural analysis, often termed Statics, deals with structures which do not move. There are only two types of motion - translation and rotation. If the structure (and all parts of it) neither translates nor rotates it is said to be in static equilibrium (it is true, of course, that any material under stress will undergo some change of size and/or shape because of those stresses but these movements are considered negligible in the present context).
In statics translation is caused by forces and rotations are caused by moments. These are vector quantities. To define a vector requires three characteristics - these are usually (a) a line of action (b) a direction and (c) a magnitude. In some contexts moments whose vectors are out of the plane are termed torques or twists. The student is expected to be familiar with simple vectors and their manipulation.
"Actions" is a general term which includes both forces and moments.
The study of statics is based upon two of Newton's three laws of motion. These are (1) a body will remain in its state of...
