Faculty of engineering sciences
Kragujevac
Seminar paper
KINEMATICS MOTIONS
Mentor:
Dr Sandra Stefanovic
Student:
/2014
Kragujevac, 2014.
2
Introduction
Kinematics deals with any motion of any object. Kinematics applies to how
rapidly your car speeds up after stopping at a red light, where a baseball travels after you've
thrown it, and even the paths of stars and planets in the galaxy. If you can see something moving
and make measurements, you can use kinematics to figure out the details.
Kinematics
is not to be confused with another branch of classical mechanics:
analytical dynamics (the study of the relationship between the motion of objects and its causes),
sometimes subdivided into kinetics (the study of the relation between external forces and motion)
and statics (the study of the relations in a system at equilibrium). Kinematics also differs from
dynamics as used in modern-day physics to describe time-evolution of a system.
The simplest application of kinematics is for particle motion, translational or
rotational. The next level of complexity comes from the introduction of rigid bodies, which are
collections of particles having time invariant distances between themselves. Rigid bodies might
undergo translation and rotation or a combination of both. A more complicated case is the
kinematics of a system of rigid bodies, which may be linked together by mechanical joints.
Kinematics can be used to find the possible range of motion for a given mechanism, or, working
in reverse, can be used to design a mechanism that has a desired range of motion. The movement
of a crane and the oscillations of a piston in an engine are both simple kinematic systems. The
crane is a type of open kinematic chain, while the piston is part of a closed four-bar linkage.
Kinematics is the study of the motion of objects. Kinematics can tell you a lot
about motion, but not everything.
