Static equilibrium problems tend to be the simplest conceptual application of Newton’s second law, as the acceleration of an object in static equilibrium is zero.  For a point mass, this means that all the forces acting on the object must cancel out and `\Sigma \vec{F} = \vec{0}`.  For an extended object, not only do all the forces need to cancel out, but all the torques must cancel out as well, so that `\Sigma \vec{\tau} = \vec{0}` also.  To work static equilibrium problems for an extended object, we must set up the system of equations showing that all the forces and all the torques acting on the object cancel out.  Then we will use our set of equations to solve for the unknown parameters within the problem.