The application of adaptive finite element method to dynamic problems is investigated. Both the kinetic and strain energy errors induced by space and time discretization were estimated in a consistent manner and controlled by the simultaneous use of the adaptive mesh generation and the automatic time stepping. Also an optimal ratio of spatial discretization error to temporal discretization error was discussed. In this study it was found that the best performance can be obtained when the specified spatial and temporal discretization errors have the same value. Numerical examples are carried out to verify the performance of the procedure.