ABSTRACT
The derivation of general kinematic equations for bodies in plane motion is the central objective of this chapter. Planar motion of a body means that all of a body’s motion is confined to a plane, for example, the plane of this page. Figure 4.1 illustrates a rigid body that is translating and rotating in the plane of the figure. The x, y coordinate system is fixed to the rigid body. The origin of the x, y system is point o, which is located in the X, Y system by the vector Ro = IRoX + JRoY. The angle θ defines the orientation of both the body and the x, y coordinate system with respect to the X, Y system. Planar kinematics of a rigid body involves keeping track of the position of a specified point on the body (e.g., using RoX and RoY of Figure 4.1 to locate point o) and the body’s orientation (θ angle of rotation of Figure 4.1) with respect to a fixed axis. Position, velocity, and acceleration vectors for points were the subjects covered in Chapter 2 on particle kinematics.
