Torque

: For the game engine, see Torque Game Engine.

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The concept of torque in physics, also called moment or couple, originated with the work of Archimedes on levers. Informally, torque can be thought of as "rotational force". The rotational analogues of force, mass and acceleration are torque, moment of inertia and angular acceleration respectively. The force applied to a lever, multiplied by its distance from the lever's , is the torque. For example, a force of three newtons applied two metres from the fulcrum exerts the same torque as one newton applied six metres from the fulcrum. This assumes the force is in a direction at right angles to the straight lever. More generally, one may define torque as the cross product:

Related Topics:
Physics - Moment - Archimedes - Lever - Force - Mass - Acceleration - Moment of inertia - Angular acceleration - Newton - Metre - Right angle - Cross product

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:oldsymbol{T} = mathbf{r} imes mathbf{F}

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where

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r is the vector from the axis of rotation to the point on which the force is acting

Related Topics:
Vector - Axis of rotation

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F is the vector of force.

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