Bennett Science Blog

Photo Credit: Public Domain By Andrew Bennett Torque can be a tricky concept, particularly when we are asked to think of it as a vector. Since torque is a vector, to fully describe the torque caused by a force, we have to give both the magnitude and direction of the torque. The torque describes the ability of a force to change the rotational motion of some object or system. If you were to grab the handle of a door and pull it toward you, you could cause the entire door to rotate.  If you pulled harder (with more force), you could make the door rotate more rapidly (or rather, you would make it have a larger angular acceleration). If you tried to pull the door again, but this time pulled on the hinges, you wouldn't get any rotation. Similarly, if you grabbed the handle and used it to pull directly toward or away from the hinges (to the side, instead of toward yourself), the door's rotation wouldn't change. How Do We Calculate Torque? From this, we can gather that the amount