Jürgen Vollmer, Universität Leipzig
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2. Balancing Forces and Torques
In mechanics we use vectors to describe forces, displacements and velocities. A displacement describes the relative position of two points in space, and the velocity can be thought of as a distance divided by the time needed to go from the initial to the final point. (A mathematically more thorough definition will be given in Chapter 3.) For forces it is of paramount importance to indicate in which direction they are acting. Similarly, in contrast to speed, a velocity can not be specified in terms of a number with a unit, e.g. 5 m/s. By its very definition one also has to specify the direction of motion. Finally, also a displacement involves a length specification and a direction.
