2.1 Physical quantities, units and working with units
The value of a physical quantity Q is expressed as the product of a numerical value Q and a unit of measurement [Q]: Q = Q × [Q] (1) For example, if the temperature T of a body is quantified (measured) as 25 degrees Celsius this is written as: T = 25 × oC = 25 oC, (2) where T is the symbol of the physical quantity “temperature”, 25 is the numerical factor and o C is the unit. By convention, physical quantities are organized in a dimensional system built upon base quantities, each of which is regarded as having its own dimension. The seven base quantities of the International System of Quantities (ISQ) and their corresponding SI units are listed in Table 1. Other conventions may have a different number of fundamental units (e.g. the CGS and MKS systems of units). Name Symbol for Symbol for SI Symbol for quantity dimension base unit Length l, x, r, etc. L u meter m Time t T n second s Mass m M it kilogra kg Electric current I, i I mamper A Thermodynamic T θ ekelvin K temperature Amount of n N mole mol substance Luminous Iv J candel cd intensity a
Table 1: International System of Units base quantities
All other quantities are derived quantities since their dimensions are derived from those of base quantities by multiplication and division. For example, the physical quantity velocity is derived from base quantities length and time and has dimension L/T. Some derived physical quantities have dimension 1 and are said to be dimensionless quantities. The International System of Units (SI) specifies a set of unit prefixes known as SI prefixes or metric prefixes. An SI prefix is a name that precedes a basic unit of measure to indicate a decimal multiple or fraction of the unit. Each prefix has a unique symbol that is prepended to the unit symbol, see Table 2. 1 Prefix Symbol 10n giga G 109 mega M 106 kilo k 103 hecto h 102 deca da 101 deci d 10−1 centi c 10−2 milli m 10−3 micro µ 10−6 nano n 10−9
Table 2: International System of Units prefixes.
A quantity is called: extensive when its magnitude is additive for subsystems (volume, mass,etc.) intensive when the magnitude is independent of the extent of the system (temperature, pressure, etc.)
Units can be used as numbers in the sense that you can add, subtract, multiply and divide them - with care. Much confusion can be avoided if you work with units as though they were symbols in algebra. For example:
• Multiply units along with numbers:
(5 m) × (2 sec) = (5 × 2) × (m × sec) = 10 m sec. The units in this example are meters times seconds, pronounced as ‘meter seconds’ and written as ‘m sec’. • Divide units along with numbers: (10 m) / (5 sec) = (10 / 5) × (m / sec) = 2 m/sec. The units in this example are meters divided by seconds, pronounced as ‘meters per second’ and written as ‘m/sec’. This is a unit of speed. • Cancel when you have the same units on top and bottom: (15 m) / (5 m) = (15 / 5) × (m / m) = 3. In this example the units (meters) have cancelled out, and the result has no units of any kind! This is what we call a ‘pure’ number. It would be the same regardless what system of units were used. • When adding or subtracting, convert both numbers to the same units before doing the arithmetic: (5 m) + (2 cm) = (5 m) + (0.02 m) = (5 + 0.02) m = 5.02 m. Recall that a ‘cm’, or centimeter, is one hundredth of a meter. So 2 cm = (2 / 100) m = 0.02 m. • You can’t add or subtract two numbers unless you can convert them both to the same units: (5 m) + (2 sec) = ??? 2 2.2 Linear motion Linear motion is motion along a straight line, and can therefore be described mathematically using only one spatial dimension. It can be uniform, that is, with constant velocity (zero acceleration), or non-uniform, that is, with a variable velocity (non-zero acceleration). The motion of a particle (a point-like object) along the line can be described by its position x, which varies with t (time). An example of linear motion is that of a ball thrown straight up and falling back straight down. The average velocity v during a finite time span of a particle undergoing linear motion is equal to v = Σx/ Σt, where Σx is the total displacement Σt denotes the time needed. The instantaneous velocity of a particle in linear motion may be found by differentiating the position x with respect to the time variable t: v = dx/dt. The acceleration may be found by differentiating the velocity: a = dv/dt. By the fundamental theorem of calculus the converse is also true: to find the velocity when given the acceleration, simply integrate the acceleration with respect to time; to find displacement, simply integrate the velocity with respect to time. This can be demonstrated graphically. The gradient of a line on the displacement time graph represents the velocity. The gradient of the velocity time graph gives the acceleration while the area under the velocity time graph gives the displacement. The area under an acceleration time graph gives the velocity.
2.3 Circular motion
Circular motion is rotation along a circle: a circular path or a circular orbit. It can be uniform, that is, with constant angular rate of rotation, or non-uniform, that is, with a changing rate of rotation. Examples of circular motion are: an artificial satellite orbiting the Earth in geosynchronous orbit, a stone which is tied to a rope and is being swung in circles (cf. hammer throw), a racecar turning through a curve in a race track, an electron moving perpendicular to a uniform magnetic field, a gear turning inside a mechanism. Circular motion is accelerated even if the angular rate of rotation is constant, because the object’s velocity vector is constantly changing direction. Such change in direction of velocity involves acceleration of the moving object by a centripetal force, which pulls the moving object towards the center of the circular orbit. Without this acceleration, the object would move in a straight line, according to Newton’s laws of motion. For motion in a circle of radius R, the circumference of the circle is C = 2πR. If the period for one rotation is T , the angular rate of rotation, also known as angular velocity, ω [rad/s] is:
ω= (3)
3 In mechanical engineering, the revolution number is often used:
The speed of the object travelling the circle is
2.4 Newton's first law
Every body persists in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by force impressed. This law states that if the resultant force (the vector sum of all forces acting on an object) is zero, then the velocity of the object is constant. Consequently: An object that is at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts upon it. An object that is in motion will not change its velocity unless an unbalanced force acts upon it. Newton placed the first law of motion to establish frames of reference for which the other laws are applicable. The first law of motion postulates the existence of at least one frame of reference called a Newtonian or inertial reference frame, relative to which the motion of a particle not subject to forces is a straight line at a constant speed.
2.5 Newton’s second law
The second law states that the net force on a particle is equal to the time rate of change of its linear momentum p in an inertial reference frame:
(6)
where we assumed constant mass. Thus, the net force applied to a body produces a proportional acceleration. For circular motion, we have M = θε, (7)
with M [N m] being the torque M = F r, ε denotes angular acceleration and θ [kgm2 ]
is the moment of inertia. 2.6 Work In physics, mechanical work is the amount of energy transferred by a force acting through a distance. In the simplest case, if the force and the displacement are parallel and constant, we have W = F s. (8)
4 It is a scalar quantity, with SI units of joules. If the direction of the force and the displacement do not coincide (e.g. when pulling a bob up to a hill) - but they are still constant - one has to take the parallel components:
W = F · v = |F| |v| cos θ = F vcosθ, (9)
where θ is the angle between the force and the displacement vector and stands for the dot product of vectors. In situations where the force changes over time, or the path deviates from a straight line, equation (9) is not generally applicable although it is possible to divide the motion into small steps, such that the force and motion are well approximated as being constant for each step, and then to express the overall work as the sum over these steps. Mathematically, the calculation of the work needs the evaluation of the following line integral:
(10) where C is the path or curve traversed by the object; F is the force vector; and s is the position vector. Note that the result of the above integral depends on the path and only from the endpoints. This is typical for systems in which losses (e.g. friction) are present (similarly as the actual fare of a taxi from point A to B depends heavily on the route the driver chooses).
2.7 Energy Energy is a quantity that is often understood as the ability to perform work. This quantity can be assigned to any particle, object, or system of objects as a consequence of its physical state. Energy is a scalar physical quantity. In the International System of Units (SI), energy is measured in joules, but in some fields other units such as kilowatt-hours and kilocalories are also used. Different forms of energy include kinetic, potential, thermal, gravitational, sound, elastic and electro- magnetic energy. Any form of energy can be transformed into another form. When energy is in a form other than thermal energy, it may be transformed with good or even perfect efficiency, to any other type of energy, however, during this con- version a portion of energy is usually lost because of losses such as friction, imperfect heat isolation, etc. In mechanical engineering, we are mostly concerned with the following types of energy: • potential energy: Ep = mgh • kinetic energy: Ek = mv2 • internal energy: Et = cp mT (with a huge number of simplifications...)
5 Although the total energy of an isolated system does not change with time, its value may depend on the frame of reference. For example, a seated passenger in a moving airplane has zero kinetic energy relative to the air- plane, but non-zero kinetic energy (and higher total energy) relative to the Earth. A closed system interacts with its surrounding with mechanical work (W ) and heat transfer (Q). Due to this interaction, the energy of the system changes: ∆E = W + Q, (11) where work is positive if the system’s energy increases (e.g. by lifting objects their potential energy increases) and heat transfer is positive if the temperature of the system increases.
2.8 Power Power is the rate at which work is performed or energy is converted. If ∆W is the amount of work performed during a period of time of duration ∆t, the average power P over that period is given by
(12)
The average power is often simply called ”power” when the context makes it clear. The instantaneous power is then the limiting value of the average power as the time interval ∆t approaches zero. In the case of constant power P , the amount of work performed during a period of duration T is W = P T . Depending on the actual machine, we have
The dimension of power is energy divided by time J/s. The SI unit of power is the watt (W), which is equal to one joule per second. A common non-SI unit of power is horsepower (hp), 1hp = 0.73549875kW .
