Lectures on Physics has been derived from Benjamin Crowell's Light and Matter series of free introductory textbooks on physics. See the editorial for more information.... |
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How torque depends on the direction of the force
How can the torque applied to the wrench in the figure be expressed in terms of r , |F|, and the angle θ? The force vector and its F? component form the hypotenuse and one leg of a right triangle,
and the interior angle opposite to F equals θ. The absolute value of F can thus be expressed as F = |F| sin θ , leading to |τ| = r |F| sin θ .
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Home Conservation Laws Conservation of Angular Momentum Examples Torque and the direction of the force |