The term free body is usually associated wih the notion of a free body diagram, a pictorial device used by physicists and engineers. In that context, a body is said to be "free" when it is singled out from other bodies for the purposes of dynamic or static analysis. The object does not have to be "free" in the sense of being unforced, and it may or may not be in a state of equilibrium. The object is said to be free in the sense that it has been singled out, identified, as the body of interest.
Famous quotes containing the words free and/or body:
“I expect that any day now, I will have said all I have to say; I’ll have used up all my characters, and then I’ll be free to get on with my real life.”
—Anne Tyler (b. 1941)
“I dream that I have brought
To such a pitch my thought
That coming time can say,
“He shadowed in a glass
What thing her body was.””
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)