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:
“Women want to serve, and this is where their happiness lies: but the free spirit does not want to be served, and this is where his happiness lies.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“We as women know that there are no disembodied processes; that all history originates in human flesh; that all oppression is inflicted by the body of one against the body of another; that all social change is built on the bone and muscle, and out of the flesh and blood, of human creators.”
—Andrea Dworkin (b. 1946)