User:Prof McCarthy/kinematics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kinematics is the branch of classical mechanics that describes the motion of bodies (objects) and systems (groups of objects) without consideration of the forces that cause the motion.[1][2][3] The term is the English version of A.M. Ampere's cinématique,[4] which he constructed from the Greek κίνημα, kinema, derived from κινεῖν, kinein, and means to move (or, more literally to stir).[5][6]
The study of kinematics is often referred to as the geometry of motion.[7] (See analytical dynamics for more detail on usage). The term kinematics also finds use in robotics, biomechanics and animal locomotion.[8] Further, mathematicians have developed the subject of kinematic geometry.
The use of geometric transformations, also called rigid transformations, to describe the movement of components of a mechanical system simplifies the derivation of its equations of motion, and is central to dynamic analysis.
Kinematic analysis finds the range of movement for a given mechanism, and, working in reverse, kinematic synthesis designs a mechanism for a desired range of motion.[9] In addition, kinematics applies algebraic geometry to the study of the mechanical advantage of a mechanical system, or mechanism.