Introduction
Dynamics covers free body diagrams, forces and the laws of motion.
Free body diagrams are the basis of solving all problems in this course. Free body diagrams are essential for success in this course. Since problems are now in two dimensions, free body diagrams are necessary to understand the problem which will lead to calculating the net force. Unlike in the course previous to this, students are not able to know without free body diagrams what the angle and magnitude of the net force will be. |
Forces that students will encounter in this unit include normal, gravitational, pull/push and frictional. Drag forces can be talked about but the curriculum does not requires students to work with them. Therefore, air resistance is always neglected. Once coefficients of static and kinetic friction are introduced, students can calculate the frictional force. Prior to this, the magnitude of frictional forces are given to students.
Newton's laws of motion are introduced and applied in two dimensions. In the previous year, students used the laws of motion only in one dimension. For this course, all problems will take place in two dimensions.
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