Solving Problems in Engineering Mechanics

[RTFVerterra]

Hello guys, I am from the Philippines and I am teaching the subject Engineering Mechanics on one of the colleges in our province. As I am from a developing country our technology are far behind that of the Western.

As of engineering curriculum, most of us are using the component method of dealing with forces in engineering mechanics. I have this book of Pytel and Kiusalaas and the authors emphasizes the use of rectangular representation of vectors, the method that used the unit vector i, j, and k. I understand the power of this approach if coupled with computer but most of our colleges made computer integration only an option (not funded).

I just want to ask the status of this subject in your country, how the program is integrated with the use of computer software. Is there a computer lab time for it, or just leave (let) the student acquire their own software. Thanks.

 

[anorlunda]

There is no special software.

If you orient the i, j, k axes properly, it is the same as the component method --- normal and parallel.

 

[Dr.D]

The use of vector notation, particularly through the use of unit vectors i, j, and k, seemed to spread rapidly in the US in the very late 1950's. A lot of this was the American response to the Russian Sputnik in October, 1957, and the fear, "Oh, we are behind!" This was what I was taught in college in 1958.

In fact, however, the use of vector components expressed in matrix form, as opposed to vector notation, greatly facilitates the application of computers for executing the computations. As a result, today I rarely use vector notation, but use matrices on a daily basis because I want the computer to crunch the numbers for me.