1.1 KINEMATICS AND KINETICS
KINEMATICS The study of motion without regard to forces.
KINETIcs The study of forces on systems in motion.
These two concepts are really not physically separable. We arbitrarily separate them for
instructional reasons in engineering education. It is also valid in engineering design
practice to first consider the desired kinematic motions and their consequences, and then
subsequently investigate the kinetic forces associated with those motions. The student
should realize that the division between kinematics and kinetics is quite arbitrary and
is done largely for convenience. One cannot design most dynamic mechanical systems
without taking both topics into thorough consideration. It is quite logical to consider
them in the order listed since, from Newton's second law, F = ma, one typically needs to