Dynamics

This is the instructor’s resource page for Dynamics at Lee University. Use of this page subject to the terms and conditions of this site.

The Basics

• Syllabus (Spring 2025)
• Course Policies
• My profile on Meet the Prof
• A little more detailed profile about me and my career in engineering
• The legacy site of the department of the Church of God I worked at for 13 1/2 years

Textbooks, Main and Supplementary

Textbooks are expensive, this course is no exception. Many students rent their textbooks only to discover they vanish with DRM when they need them the most. This is to help you get around that problem. Book titles in bold are available in print.

• Course Textbook: Hibbler, Dynamics, 15th Edition
• Downloadable Textbooks
  • Smith’s Mechanic (1863.) My great-grandfather’s (at right) Statics and Dynamics textbook at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. one of the premier engineering schools in the U.S. It paid off: he had a successful career as a naval architect.
  • Analytical Mechanics for Engineers (1921) by Fred Seely and and Newton Ensign. Seely (also a professor at the University of Illinois) was a fixture in American engineering textbooks for many years; I had one of them when pursuing my Master’s in the 1990’s. Includes some vector analysis as well.
  • Statics and Dynamics of a Particle (1927) by William Duncan MacMillan. Another classic textbook including vector analysis.
  • Theoretical Mechanics: A Short Course (1988) by S. Targ. Probably the closest thing to the way Statics and Dynamics is taught today without either being out of print, under copyright or both.
  • Fundamental of Engineering Mechanics (1962) by L. Levinson.
  • Theoretical Mechanics (1970) by M. Movnin and A. Izrayelit. If I was teaching this course (and Statics) without consideration of American engineering educational conventions and requirements, but only for the material in practice, this is the book I would use.
  • Strength of Materials – Kinasoshvili (1978) A little beyond statics, but covers shear and moment diagrams.
  • Mechanics (1978) by S.P. Strelkov

Topical Articles for Various Parts of the Course, Including the Devotionals

12. Kinematics of a Particle
    • How the Saximeter Works, and Why You Can’t Use It on a Vulcan (or any other External Combustion) Hammer. A basic illustration of an application of one-dimensional particle kinematics.
    • The Basics of Setting the Cut-Off Point for a Vulcan Single-Acting Hammer. What the textbook refers to as “erratic motion” is in fact what makes the machine work.
    • General Form of Particle Kinematics Equations in Cartesian Coordinates, and an Example
    • The Kinematics and Kinetics of Vibratory Driver Eccentric Rotation
    • The General Form of Circular Motion for Particle Kinematics, and an Example with Time-Varying Rotational Velocity
    • Particle Kinematics for Straight Line Motion
    • Projectile Motion, or Why You Don’t Put Starter Fluid in a Diesel Hammer
    • Relative Motion, or Making Sure You’re Get Where You’re Going
    • The Sermon on the Mount: The First Day
    • The Sermon on the Mount: The Eleventh Day, The Four Marks of a Christian
13. Kinetics of a Particle: Force and Acceleration
    • The Kinematics and Kinetics of Vibratory Driver Eccentric Rotation
    • Estimating the Starting Time of a Vulcan Vibratory Hammer
    • The Sermon on the Mount: The Fourteenth Day, Reconciliation
    • The Sermon on the Mount: The Sixteenth Day, Christian Simplicity
14. Kinetics of a Particle: Work and Energy
    • So What is the Force of the Ram?
    • The Basics of Vibratory Power Theory
    • Work and Energy in Elastic Springs
    • The Sermon on the Mount: The Twenty-First Day, Prayer and the Presence of God
15. Kinetics of a Particle: Impulse and Momentum
    • Impulse, Momentum, Artillery and Recoil: An Example
    • A Tale of Two Coefficients of Restitution (the actual pile driving example presented in class)
      • Billiards and Pile Driving: Newtonian Impact Mechanics and Dynamic Formulae
      • Comparing Rigid Piles with Semi-Infinite Piles/Wave Equation Piles (why Newtonian impact mechanics don’t work with driven piles)
    • Meditations on the Gospel: The Thirty-Fifth Day, Beware of All Covetousness
16. Planar Kinematics of a Rigid Body
17. Planar Kinetics of a Rigid Body: Force and Acceleration
    • Meditations on the Gospel: The Third Day, The victory and power of Jesus Christ over death in the resurrection of Lazarus
    • Meditations on the Gospel: The Sixth Day, Jesus Christ is marked as a sign which shall be contradicted.
    • Meditations on the Gospel: The Eighth Day, The Three Anointings
18. Planar Kinetics of a Rigid Body: Work and Energy
    • Meditations on the Gospel: The Twenty-First Day, Man Clothed in the Omnipotence of God
19. Planar Kinetics of a Rigid Body: Impulse and Momentum

Engineering, Mathematics and Christianity

• If You Really Want to Get Into Trouble, Read the Mediaevals. The story of Georg Cantor and transfinite mathematics, which revolutionised the science
  • The Challenge from Aquinas That Changed Mathematics. Cantor answered that challenge and changed everything.
• Jesus Christ, the Way Up
• Taking the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal. The life of Saint-Venant, a giant in the field of mechanics of materials.

Liturgical Material

Yes, Lee is a Pentecostal school, but in recent times there’s been an interest in liturgical worship. I was raised in that at the church pictured at the right (Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Palm Beach.)

I did three series on the subject at the North Cleveland Church of God, below are links to the first in each series:

• Liturgy, Pentecost, Wesley and the Book of Common Prayer (Lent 2023)
• Advent Series 2023
• Lent 2024 Series: I Am The Bread of Life (Holy Communion)