An important problem in structural engineering is that of finding the forces in a statical...

An important problem in structural engineering is that of finding the forces in a statically determinate truss (Fig. P8.10). This type of structure can be described as a system of coupled linear algebraic equations derived from force balances. The sum of the forces in both horizontal and vertical directions must be zero at each node, because the system is at rest. Therefore, for node 1:

for node 2:

FIGURE P8.10

For node 3:

where Fi,h is the external horizontal force applied to node i (where a positive force is from left to right) and Fi,v is the external vertical force applied to node i (where a positive force is upward). Thus, in this problem, the 2000-N downward force on node 1 corresponds to Fi,v = –2000. For this case, all other Fi,v's and Fi,h's are zero. Express this set of linear algebraic equations in matrix form and then use MATLAB to solve for the unknowns.