W. Woolsey Johnson
Published: 2015-08-05
Total Pages: 476
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Excerpt from Theoretical Mechanics: An Elementary Treatise In preparing the present work, which was designed to include in a single volume of moderate compass the elementary portions of Theoretical Mechanics, no formal division of the subject into Kinematics, Statics and Kinetics has been made. The topics often included under the first head it was thought best to introduce separately, each at the point where it is required for immediate application to the treatment of the motions produced by forces. For example, the expressions for radial and transverse accelerations are not introduced until required in the discussion of Central Forces. The subject of Statics is, to be sure, to a large extent separable from the idea of motion. But, on the one hand, as has been recognized in all recent treatises, the fundamental notions of force are best presented, and the Parallelogram of Forces is best established, on the basis of the Laws of Motion. This requires what may be called a dynamical introduction to Statics. On the other hand, the subject cannot be completed without the Method of Virtual Velocities, an application of the Principle of Work. This principle, which is dynamical as involving forces acting through spaces, advantageously precedes the study of kinetics into which time enters explicitly, and prepares the student for the notion of Kinetic Energy, or work embodied in motion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.