ABSTRACT
This chapter describes skills which are fundamental and extremely important in many branches of engineering. The chapter commences with defining the moment of a force, and then using equilibrium considerations, demonstrates the principle of moments. When using a spanner to tighten a nut, a force tends to turn the nut in a clockwise direction. This turning effect of a force is called the moment of a force. The unit of a moment is the newton metre. A beam is said to be in equilibrium when there is no tendency for it to move. When the forces acting are all in one plane, the algebraic sum of the moments can be taken about any point. A simply supported beam is said to be one that rests on two knife-edge supports and is free to move horizontally. Typical practical applications of simply supported beams with point loadings include bridges, beams in buildings, and beds of machine tools.
