Lesson Plan: Moment of a Force about a Point in 2D: Vectors Mathematics

This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to find the moment of a planar system of forces acting on a body about a point as a vector.

Objectives

Students will be able to

  • express the moment of a force as a vector,
  • find the moment of a force about a point in 2D when given the force as a vector and the 2D coordinates of the relevant points using the cross product,
  • find the sum of moments of a system of forces in 2D when given the forces as vectors and the 2D coordinates of the relevant points using the cross product,
  • find unknown values when given the moment and the forces as vectors in 2D,
  • finding the length of the perpendicular between the line of action of the force and a point using the moment.

Prerequisites

Students should already be familiar with

  • vectors,
  • the vector (cross) product,
  • finding the determinant of a 3×3 matrix.

Exclusions

Students will not cover

  • moments in 3D,
  • finding the moment of a force or of multiple forces about a point in scalar form,
  • the moment of a couple.

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