Dynamics

by David C. Wilcox

This book has been developed from the author's lecture notes used in presenting dynamics courses at the University of Southern California. The material presented is appropriate for a one-term undergraduate course aimed at adding the power of vector calculus to students' skills in solving problems of mechanics based on Newton's Second Law of Motion. Successful study of this material requires an understanding of basic calculus and elementary mechanics. Many introductory dynamics texts have been written during the past five decades, and most have a common denominator of minimal mathematical complexity, which is done primarily to emphasize the physics of dynamics without losing the student in the equations. This text is no exception on that count. One of the primary differences between this book and virtually all modern dynamics books is the style in which problems are presented and solved. All examples and problems are cast in terms of algebraic quantities. This stands in distinct contrast to common practice of going straight to a calculator and bypassing the logical development of an answer in a form that can be checked for dimensional consistency, and that might be used in a design study and/or incorporated in a computer program. A second key difference is a unified treatment both of rigid-body kinematics and of rigid-body kinetics. Many of the current dynamics books treat rigid-body kinematics in a disjointed manner, first focusing on two-dimensional motion before turning to three dimensions. No such artificial separation has been made in this book. Virtually all modern dynamics books include separate chapters on two-dimensional and three-dimensional rigid-body kinetics, which obscures the connection between angular momentum and the inertia tensor. In a single chapter on kinetics, this manuscript first develops the full inertia tensor, and then demonstrates how it simplifies in the limiting case of two-dimensional motion.

340 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2011