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resultant force (Definition)

The resultant force is simply the sum of the total external forces acting on a body.

$\mathbf{F}_{res} = \sum_{i=1}^{n}\mathbf{ F}_{i} = \mathbf{ F}_1 + \mathbf{ F}_2 + ...$

Geometrically, the resultant force $\mathbf{R}$ of two forces $\mathbf{P}$ and $\mathbf{Q}$ is shown in Figure 1. The law of the parallelogram of forces states that given two vectors, the resultant force of using these vectors as sides to a parallelogram is the diagonal of the parallelogram.

Image ResultantForceFig1
Figure 1: Resultant force and the law of the parallelogram of forces.

Bibliography

[1] Brooke, William; Wilcox, Hugh. "Engineering Mechanics". Ginn and Company, Boston, 1929.

[2] Ling, Samuel et al. "University physics". Volume 1. OpenStax College, Houston, 2021.



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Physics Classification: 45.50.Dd (General motion)
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