These dynamics course notes were authored by Dr. Elizabeth Croft (currently at Monash University (elizabeth.croft@monash.edu) in 2004, and converted for open licensing (including figure creation) in 2019 by Dr. Agnes d'Entremont (adentremont@mech.ubc.ca) from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (https://mech.ubc.ca).

The notes (are designed to be used for a second-year dynamics course in Mechanical Engineering, and cover planar rigid-body dynamics and an introduction to one degree-of-freedom vibrations. The order of topics has vibrations earlier in the series than typical, due to their use in an integrated course. This order matches the course timing of related ordinary differential equation solutions in the integrated mathematics and electric circuits courses.

These notes are intended to be skeleton notes, with substantial portions (diagrams, derivations, solutions) written in by students along with their instructor. Completed notes are included. PDF notes plus original LaTeX code and editable images (Powerpoint) are available at the link.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This six-day lesson provides students with an introduction to the importance of energy in their lives and the need to consider how and why we consume the energy we do. The lesson includes activities to engage students in general energy issues, including playing an award-winning Energy Choices board game, and an optional graphing activity that provides experience with MS Excel graphing and perspectives on how we use energy and how much energy we use.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"A new, fully automated approach could help spot faulty electric motors before they leave the production floor. Based on a popular machine-learning algorithm known as an autoencoder, this technique could prove invaluable to the numerous industries that produce electric motors, as well as those that rely on them. An autoencoder is an algorithm that distills, or encodes, input data down to a few key elements. It then decodes that information to reproduce the original data as closely as possible. At first glance, it might look like a simple cut-and-paste operation. But there’s more than meets the eye. The algorithm actually learns to pick out patterns that are fundamental to the structure of the original data set. For that reason, the tool is incredibly useful for cleaning up noisy data. Trained on a sufficiently large data set, an autoencoder can look at a muddled image and output a fair restoration. That ability, it turns out, is also valuable for telling a good electric motor from a bad one..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This sequence of instruction was developed in the Growing Elementary Science Project to help elementary teachers who were working remotely.  We developed a short storyline that ties together a few sessions to help explore a specific concept.  We tried to include some activities that honored and included the student’s family and experience, and some that included the potential for ELA learning goals.Unlike other units in our series, this was not developed as a complete stand-alone unit. Our intent, in this case, was to provide a set of options for the teacher, as well as some materials for consideration of opportunities to integrate reading in science.It is part of ClimeTime - a collaboration among all nine Educational Service Districts (ESDs) in Washington and many Community Partners to provide programs for science teacher training around Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and climate science, thanks to grant money made available to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) by Governor Inslee. 

Students will investigate how sounds are made and changed, record their findings in their journal, share these findings with the class, and develop further questions about sound.

Students learn how roadways are designed and constructed, and discuss the advantages and limitations of the current roadway construction process. They look at current practices of roadway monitoring, discuss the limitations, and consider ways to further road monitoring research. To conclude, student groups compete to design smooth, cost-efficient and sound model road bases using gravel, sand, water and rubber (representing asphalt). This lesson prepares students for the associated activity in which they act as civil engineers hired by USDOT to research through their own model experimentation how to best use piezoelectric materials to detect road damage by showing how piezoelectric transducers can indicate road damage.

Open textbook in statics and dynamics for engineering undergraduates. Covers particles and rigid bodies (extended bodies), structures (trusses), simple machines, kinematics, and kinetics, as well as introductory vibrations. Includes text, videos, images, and worked examples (written and video).

This course is the first of a two term sequence in modeling, analysis and control of dynamic systems. The various topics covered are as follows: mechanical translation, uniaxial rotation, electrical circuits and their coupling via levers, gears and electro-mechanical devices, analytical and computational solution of linear differential equations, state-determined systems, Laplace transforms, transfer functions, frequency response, Bode plots, vibrations, modal analysis, open- and closed-loop control, instability, time-domain controller design, and introduction to frequency-domain control design techniques. Case studies of engineering applications are also covered.

Students learn the physical properties of sound, how it travels and how noise impacts human health—including the quality of student learning. They learn different techniques that engineers use in industry to monitor noise level exposure and then put their knowledge to work by using a smart phone noise meter app to measure the noise level at an area of interest, such as busy roadways near the school. They devise an experimental procedure to measure sound levels in their classroom, at the source of loud noise (such as a busy road or construction site), and in between. Teams collect data using smart phones/tablets, microphones and noise apps. They calculate wave properties, including frequency, wavelength and amplitude. A PowerPoint® presentation, three worksheets and a quiz are provided.

Acting as civil engineers hired by the U.S. Department of Transportation to research how to best use piezoelectric materials to detect road damage, student groups are challenged to independently create their own experiment procedures, working with given materials and tools. The general approach is that they set up model roads using rubber mats to simulate asphalt and piezoelectric transducers to simulate the in-ground road sensors. They drop heavy bolts at various locations on the “road,” collecting data and then analyzing the voltage changes across the piezoelectric transducers caused by the vibrations of the bolt hitting the rubber. After making notches in the rubber “road” to simulate cracks and potholes, they collect more data to see if the piezo elements detect the damage. Students write up their research and conclusions as if presenting evidence to USDOT officials about how the voltage changes across the piezo elements can be used to indicate road damage and extrapolated to determine when roads need maintenance service.

This is an engineering laboratory subject for mechanical engineering juniors and seniors. Major emphasis is on interplay between analytical and experimental methods in solution of research and development problems. Communication (written and oral) of results is also a strong component of the course. Groups of two or three students work together on three projects during the term.

This inquiry lab activity involves students working to understand that sound is made from vibrations.

8.03 Physics III: Vibrations and Waves is the third course in the core physics curriculum at MIT, following 8.01 Physics I: Classical Mechanics and 8.02 Physics II: Electricity and Magnetism. Topics include mechanical vibrations and waves, electromagnetic waves, and optics. These Problem Solving Help Videos provide step-by-step solutions to sample problems. Also included is information about how Physics III is typically taught on the MIT campus. Instructor Insights are shared by Professor Wit Busza who has taught Physics III and its associated recitation sessions many times. Professor Busza’s insights focus on his approach to problem solving, strategies for supporting students as they solve problems, and common sources of confusion for students in the process of problem solving.
Note: These videos were originally produced as part of a physics course that is no longer available on OCW.