Article
Article
Statics
Article By:
Barger, Vernon D. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin.
Last reviewed:April 2022
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.652100
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The branch of mechanics that describes bodies which are acted upon by balanced forces and torques so that the bodies remain at rest or in uniform motion. Statics includes point particles, rigid bodies, fluids, and deformable solids in general. Static point particles, however, are not very interesting, and special branches of mechanics are devoted to fluids and deformable solids. For example, hydrostatics is the study of static fluids, and elasticity and plasticity are two branches devoted to deformable bodies. This article will be limited to the discussion of the statics of rigid bodies in two and three spatial dimensions. See also: Buoyancy; Dimension; Elasticity; Fluids; Hydrostatics; Mechanics; Motion; Plasticity
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