Mechanical Equilibrium
Mechanical Equilibrium is described as the state of rest or balance due to equal action of two opposite forces and/or the equal balance of any powers.
Whenever the net force of an object is zero, that object is in mechanical equilibrium. The same formula, F=MA applies to mechanical equilibrium. The difference between mechanical equilibrium and Newton's Second law, is that an object must be accelerating in order to apply to the 2nd law.
Whenever the net force of an object is zero, that object is in mechanical equilibrium. The same formula, F=MA applies to mechanical equilibrium. The difference between mechanical equilibrium and Newton's Second law, is that an object must be accelerating in order to apply to the 2nd law.
free body diagrams
Free body diagrams help to visualize how the force vectors cancel out to find the net force.
Relating To Football
Imagine an offensive player is running towards a defensive player after the ball is snapped. Mechanical equilibrium would take place if both players had the same mass. Once they collide, instead of one falling back from the impact (Law Of Motion), both players would hit each other and stop.
Explaining this further, say the offense football player pushes the defense football players with 20 Newtons. Say the defense player does the same exact thing, pushing with 20 Newtons of force. The two would cancel out to equal zero, thus creating mechanical equilibrium.
Reveiw questions
As accelerations goes up, force...
a.) goes down
b.) goes up
c.) stays the same
Up
A football player has a mass of 95.25 kg. If he accelerates at 2.10 m/s^2, what is the mechanical equilibrium of the player?
0