PHYS 1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Rotational Energy, Moment Of Inertia, Cross Product
Document Summary
The torque is the cross product of the distance from the centre of rotation and the force. Point fingers on right hand in direction of vector a. Curl fingers in direction of vector b. Thumb indicates direction of the cross product - vector c. The si unit of torque is the newton. metre, n. m. ** note that it is always written as newton. metre or n. m to identify it as a rotational unit. For example, torque and work are not equivalent quantities, even though they have the same units this is because torque is a vector quantity and work/energy is a scalar quantity . The work done by a constant torque can be defined in terms of the angular displacement. If the torque produces an angular displacement. Integrate the torque function with respect to the angle. ** note that this is very similar to the work done by a variable force concept.