Ceramics are mixtures of metallic and nonmetallic elements that withstand exteme thermal, chemical, and pressure environments. They have a high melting point, low corrosive action, and are chemically stable. Examples include rock, sand, clay, glass, brick, and porcelain.

Collinear forces act along the same line of action, concurrent forces pass through a common point and coplanar forces act in a common plane.

The mechanical advantage (amount of change in speed or torque) of connected gears is proportional to the number of teeth each gear has. Called gear ratio, it's the ratio of the number of teeth on the larger gear to the number of teeth on the smaller gear. For example, a gear with 12 teeth connected to a gear with 9 teeth would have a gear ratio of 4:3.

Mass is a measure of the amount of matter in an object. In general, larger objects have larger mass than smaller objects but mass ultimately depends on how compact (dense) a substance is.

In mechanics, multiple forces are often acting on a particular object and, taken together, produce the net force acting on that object. Like force, net force is a vector quantity in that it has magnitude and direction.