Chapter 16, Plane Motion of Rigid Bodies: Forces and Accelerations , is the bridge between kinematics (how things move) and kinetics (why they move). If you are using the by Beer, Johnston, Cornwell, and Self, you know these problems can be brutal.

After reviewing the official solutions manual (the one instructors use), here are the "gateway" problems you should study first:

As a mechanical engineering student, Alex had been struggling with the dynamics course all semester. The professor, Dr. Lee, was notorious for assigning challenging homework problems from the "Vector Mechanics for Engineers: Dynamics 12th Edition" textbook. Alex had been trying to keep up, but Chapter 16 - "Relative-Motion Analysis: Velocity and Acceleration" - was proving to be a major hurdle.

You solve problems by setting the sum of moments or forces on the FBD equal to those on the KD. 3. Types of Plane Motion