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mechanics of solids
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Figure 1: The position vector x and the velocity vector v of a material point, the body force fdV acting on an element dV of volume, and the surface force TdS acting on an element dS of surface in a Cartesian coordinate system 1, 2, 3 (see text). Figure 2: The nine components of a stress tensor. The first index denotes the direction of the normal, or perpendicular, stresses to the plane across which the contact force acts, and the second index denotes the direction of the component of force (see text). Figure 3: The force TdS acting on an arbitrarily inclined face (whose outward unit normal vector is n). Stress vectors T(−1), T(−2), and T(−3) act on the faces perpendicular to the coordinate axes. Figure 4: Principal stresses (see text). Figure 5: (A) Extensional strain and (B) simple shear strain, where the element drawn with dashed lines represents the reference configuration, and the element drawn with solid lines represents the deformed configuration. Figure 6: Relations of strains to gradients of displacement (see text). Figure 7: Transverse motion of an initially straight beam, shown at left as an elastic line and at right as a solid of finite section (see text).
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Italian-born physicist Dr. Enrico Fermi draws a diagram at a blackboard with mathematical equations. circa 1950.
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Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi at work in the wireless room of his yacht Electra, c. 1920.
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Figure 1: The position vector x and the velocity vector v of a material point, the body force fdV acting on an element dV of volume, and the surface force TdS acting on an element dS of surface in a Cartesian coordinate system 1, 2, 3 (see text).
Figure 1: The position vector x and the velocity vector v of a material point, the body force fdV acting on an element dV of volume, and the surface force TdS acting on an element dS of surface in a Cartesian coordinate system 1, 2, 3 (see text).

mechanics of solids

physics
Written by
James Robert Rice
Mallinckrodt Professor of Engineering Sciences and Geophysics, Harvard University. Coauthor of Solid Mechanics Research Trends and Opportunities, 1985; author of numerous papers on solid mechanics...
James Robert Rice
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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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mechanics of solids, science concerned with the stressing, deformation, and failure of solid materials and structures. What, then, is a solid? Any material, fluid or solid, can support normal forces. These are forces directed perpendicular, or normal, to a material plane across which they act. The force per unit of area of that plane is called the normal stress. Water at the base of a pond, air in an automobile tire, the stones of a...

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