Engineering Dynamics: A Primer

Scope, Aims, and Audiences This primer is intended to provide the theoretical background for the standard undergraduate course in dynamics. This course is usually based on one of the following texts: Bedford and Fowler [6], Beer and John­ ston [7], Hibbeler [33], Meriam and Kraige [39], Riley and Sturges [50], and Shames [56], among others. Although most teachers will have cer­ tain reservations about these texts, there appears to be a general consensus that the selection of problems each of them presents is an invaluable and essential aid for studying and understanding dynamics.
I myself use Meriam and Kraige [39] when teaching such a course, which is referred to as ME104 at the University of California at Berkeley. However, I have found that the gap between the theory presented in the aforemen­ tioned texts and the problems I wished my students to solve was too large. As a result, I prepared my own set of notes on the relevant theory, and I used Meriam and Kraige [39] as a problem and homework resource. This primer grew out of these notes. Its content was also heavily influenced by three other courses that I teach: one on rigid body dynamics, one on La­ 1 grangian mechanics, and another on Hamiltonian mechanics. Because I use the primer as a supplement, I have only included a set of brief exercises at the end of each chapter.