- dynamics
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/duy nam"iks/, n.1. (used with a sing. v.) Physics. the branch of mechanics that deals with the motion and equilibrium of systems under the action of forces, usually from outside the system.2. (used with a pl. v.) the motivating or driving forces, physical or moral, in any field.3. (used with a pl. v.) the pattern or history of growth, change, and development in any field.4. (used with a pl. v.) variation and gradation in the volume of musical sound.5. (used with a sing. v.) psychodynamics.[1780-90; see DYNAMIC, -ICS]
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Branch of mechanics that deals with the motion of objects in relation to force, mass, momentum, and energy.Dynamics can be divided into two branches, kinematics and kinetics. The foundations of dynamics were laid by Galileo, who derived the law of motion for falling bodies and was the first to recognize that all changes of velocity of a body are the result of forces. Isaac Newton formulated this observation in his second law of motion (see Newton's laws of motion).* * *
▪ physicsbranch of physical science and subdivision of mechanics that is concerned with the motion of material objects in relation to the physical factors that affect them: force, mass, momentum, energy.A brief treatment of dynamics follows. For full treatment, see mechanics.Dynamics can be subdivided into kinematics, which describes motion, without regard to its causes, in terms of position, velocity, and acceleration; and kinetics, which is concerned with the effect of forces and torques on the motion of bodies having mass. The foundations of dynamics were laid at the end of the 16th century by Galileo Galilei who, by experimenting with a smooth ball rolling down an inclined plane, derived the law of motion for falling bodies; he was also the first to recognize that force is the cause of changes in the velocity of a body, a fact formulated by Isaac Newton (Newton, Sir Isaac) in the 17th century in his second law of motion. This law states that the force acting on a body is equal to the rate of change of the body's momentum. See mechanics; Newton's laws of motion.* * *
Universalium. 2010.