Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Consequently, the object is in a state of static mechanical equilibrium. In classical mechanics, a particle is in mechanical equilibrium if the net force on that particle is zero. [1]: 39 By extension, a physical system made up of many parts is in mechanical equilibrium if the net force on each of its individual parts is zero. [1]: 45–46 [2]
The static equilibrium of a particle is an important concept in statics. A particle is in equilibrium only if the resultant of all forces acting on the particle is equal to zero. In a rectangular coordinate system the equilibrium equations can be represented by three scalar equations, where the sums of forces in all three directions are equal ...
A contact equilibrium may be regarded also as an exchange equilibrium. There is a zero balance of rate of transfer of some quantity between the two systems in contact equilibrium. For example, for a wall permeable only to heat, the rates of diffusion of internal energy as heat between the two systems are equal and opposite.
The word equilibrium implies a state of balance. Equilibrium thermodynamics, in origins, derives from analysis of the Carnot cycle. Here, typically a system, as cylinder of gas, initially in its own state of internal thermodynamic equilibrium, is set out of balance via heat input from a combustion reaction. Then, through a series of steps, as ...
Mechanical equilibrium, the state in which the sum of the forces, and torque, on each particle of the system is zero; Radiative equilibrium, the state where the energy radiated is balanced by the energy absorbed; Secular equilibrium, a state of radioactive elements in which the production rate of a daughter nucleus is balanced by its own decay rate
In other words, the configuration of particle A in state 1 and particle B in state 2 is different from the case in which particle B is in state 1 and particle A is in state 2. This assumption leads to the proper (Boltzmann) statistics of particles in the energy states, but yields non-physical results for the entropy, as embodied in the Gibbs ...
Since every particle needs to be in equilibrium, this reaction stress will generally propagate from particle to particle, creating a stress distribution throughout the body. The typical problem in stress analysis is to determine these internal stresses, given the external forces that are acting on the system.
A quasi-static thermodynamic process can be visualized by graphically plotting the path of idealized changes to the system's state variables. In the example, a cycle consisting of four quasi-static processes is shown. Each process has a well-defined start and end point in the pressure-volume state space.