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Layered rock formation.
On a short time scale, rocks like these in Australia’s Kings Canyon are static, or motionless relative to the Earth. (credit: freeaussiestock.com)

What might desks, bridges, buildings, trees, and mountains have in common—at least in the eyes of a physicist? The answer is that they are ordinarily motionless relative to the Earth. Furthermore, their acceleration is zero because they remain motionless. That means they also have something in common with a car moving at a constant velocity, because anything with a constant velocity also has an acceleration of zero. Now, the important part—Newton’s second law states that net F = ma size 12{F= ital "ma"} {} , and so the net external force is zero for all stationary objects and for all objects moving at constant velocity. There are forces acting, but they are balanced. That is, they are in equilibrium .

Statics

Statics is the study of forces in equilibrium, a large group of situations that makes up a special case of Newton’s second law. We have already considered a few such situations; in this chapter, we cover the topic more thoroughly, including consideration of such possible effects as the rotation and deformation of an object by the forces acting on it.

How can we guarantee that a body is in equilibrium and what can we learn from systems that are in equilibrium? There are actually two conditions that must be satisfied to achieve equilibrium. These conditions are the topics of the first two sections of this chapter.

Questions & Answers

material that allows electric current to pass through
Deng Reply
material which don't allow electric current is called
Deng
insulators
Covenant
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Ewa Reply
what is conservative force with examples
Moses
what is work
Fredrick Reply
the transfer of energy by a force that causes an object to be displaced; the product of the component of the force in the direction of the displacement and the magnitude of the displacement
AI-Robot
why is it from light to gravity
Esther Reply
difference between model and theory
Esther
Is the ship moving at a constant velocity?
Kamogelo Reply
The full note of modern physics
aluet Reply
introduction to applications of nuclear physics
aluet Reply
the explanation is not in full details
Moses Reply
I need more explanation or all about kinematics
Moses
yes
zephaniah
I need more explanation or all about nuclear physics
aluet
Show that the equal masses particles emarge from collision at right angle by making explicit used of fact that momentum is a vector quantity
Muhammad Reply
yh
Isaac
A wave is described by the function D(x,t)=(1.6cm) sin[(1.2cm^-1(x+6.8cm/st] what are:a.Amplitude b. wavelength c. wave number d. frequency e. period f. velocity of speed.
Majok Reply
what is frontier of physics
Somto Reply
A body is projected upward at an angle 45° 18minutes with the horizontal with an initial speed of 40km per second. In hoe many seconds will the body reach the ground then how far from the point of projection will it strike. At what angle will the horizontal will strike
Gufraan Reply
Suppose hydrogen and oxygen are diffusing through air. A small amount of each is released simultaneously. How much time passes before the hydrogen is 1.00 s ahead of the oxygen? Such differences in arrival times are used as an analytical tool in gas chromatography.
Ezekiel Reply
please explain
Samuel
what's the definition of physics
Mobolaji Reply
what is physics
Nangun Reply
the science concerned with describing the interactions of energy, matter, space, and time; it is especially interested in what fundamental mechanisms underlie every phenomenon
AI-Robot

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Source:  OpenStax, College physics. OpenStax CNX. Jul 27, 2015 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11406/1.9
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