Talk:Main Page

From Physics Book
Revision as of 09:53, 3 December 2015 by Lwalker37 (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Torque

Torque is a Latin word that roughly means "twist," and is usually symbolized by the lower case Greek letter tau. Torque is the measurement of how much a force, F, acting on an object will cause that object to rotate. This force is usually applied to an arm of some sort that is attached to a fulcrum or pivot point. For example, using a wrench to loosen or tighten a nut requires the use of torque - where the wrench would be the arm you apply the force to and the nut would be the pivot point that the force rotates around.


The Main Idea

In "Matter & Interactions, Fourth Edition," torque is defined as τ = rA x F . Applying a torque to an object changes the angular momentum of that object. Torque, in angular momentum calculations, is analogus to Fnet in regular momentum calculations. Just like how a collection of forces acting on a system is called Fnet, a collection of torques acting on a system is τnet.

A Mathematical Model

Torque is defined as the cross product of the distance vector, the distance from pivot point to the location of the applied force, with an applied force. The magnitude of torque can be defined as such:

  • τA = rAFsinθ

To determine the direction of torque, one can either compute the cross product or apply the "right-hand rule." To use the "right-hand rule," point your fingers in the direction of rA and curl your fingers in the direction of F.

If your thumb points up, the force is coming out of the page and is in the positive z-directon. If your thumb points down, the force is going into the page and is in the negative z-direction.

A Computational Model

Examples

Be sure to show all steps in your solution and include diagrams whenever possible

Simple

Middling

Difficult

Connectedness

  1. How is this topic connected to something that you are interested in?
  2. How is it connected to your major?
  3. Is there an interesting industrial application?

History

Put this idea in historical context. Give the reader the Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

See also

Are there related topics or categories in this wiki resource for the curious reader to explore? How does this topic fit into that context?

Further reading

Books, Articles or other print media on this topic

External links

[1]


References

This section contains the the references you used while writing this page