Introduction

We have spent the first half of the semester gaining sufficient knowledge to describe the motion of objects and relate their positions, velocities, and accelerations (kinematics). Now we begin looking at unbalanced forces and the motion they produce on objects (kinetics).

Statics dealt with balanced systems of forces and couples, which gave us objects in equilibrium (at rest or moving with a constant velocity). Dynamics deals with unbalanced systems of forces and couples, which cause the objects to accelerate.