Help me understand Mechanics!

[xox.happy1.xox]

Trying to learn Mechanics now... I can draw the diagrams now, at least... ... But that's as far as I get

[fredrick]

If u dont know what your doing use

Assign one direction as positive and the opposite direction as negative(these must be parallel to each other).
If you want to find the Total force(net force) just sum all the forces together.

For example a car moving to the right with a constant force of K Newtons experiences a resistive force of K-100 Newtons, the mass of the car is 500kg and has a constant acceleration of 3ms-2. Assign right as positive and left as negative. Now the vector sum( net force) is just:


Now using we obtain

Therefore
Generally you apply this concept to most of the questions, except that some are on inclines where you must take the angles into consideration.

[Mao]

drawing diagrams is the most important step.

the next part is simply resolving into components: parallel to the direction of motion, and perpendicular to the direction of motion (which generally evaluates to zero)

when all the forces (components) are perpendicular or parallel, you find the net force in each direction (keeping in mind that some will be positive, some will be negative), and equate that to ma, where a is the net acceleration.

and now is just algebra hacking! =]

[xox.happy1.xox]

So basically, I just need to remember that F=ma and I can go from there? I am very slowly understanding the process. Thanks everyone for helping!

[Pandemonium]

Yes, however remember this point:
when a particle is undergoing constant velocity, treat the system as if it were static. this is because fnet = 0 (ie. a=0)