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Explain to me the concept of equilibrium

  1. Oct 8, 2006 #1
    Can someone please explain to me the concept of equilibrium because i am having trouble understanding it.

  2. jcsd
  3. Oct 8, 2006 #2


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    In statics, when an object or particle is in equilibrium, there is no net (resultant) force or torque acting on it. There may be a bunch of individual forces acting, but the sum of all of them is 0. When this happens, the object is at rest, or moving at constant velocity, per Newton's First law.
  4. Oct 9, 2006 #3


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    The forces acting on the object cancel each other out. That is like a tug of war - quite large forces might be in effect, but since they are the same in both (or all) directions the knot does not move at all.

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