ABSTRACT
This chapter examines each rigid body in the mechanism and identify its type of motion. It considers first the motion of the point in terms of Cartesian co-ordinates, the position vector, may be expressed in terms of its components x along OX and y along OY. A more general approach is to work from first principles, remembering that velocity and acceleration are the first and second derivatives, with respect to time. Position, velocity and acceleration cannot be described solely in terms of magnitude; their directions must also be specified. Quantities which require a definition of both magnitude and direction are called vector quantities; those defined by magnitude only are referred to as scalar quantities. Epicyclic gear trains are characterised by having at least one gear wheel whose centre moves on a circular path. As in the case of the slider crank mechanism, a graphical method may be used to solve the vector equations for the bodies which comprise the linkage.
