Article
Article
Rigid body
Article By:
Williams, Dudley Formerly, Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.
Last reviewed:August 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.590300
An idealized extended solid whose size and shape are definitely fixed and remain unaltered when forces are applied. Treatment of the motion of a rigid body in terms of Newton's laws of motion leads to an understanding of certain important aspects of the translational and rotational motion of real bodies without the necessity of considering the complications involved when changes in size and shape occur. Many of the principles used to treat the motion of rigid bodies apply in good approximation to the motion of real elastic solids. See also: Newton's laws of motion; Rigid-body dynamics
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