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🔧 How Torque Works

Learn to find torque from force, lever arm, and angle, assign its direction, and test whether opposing turning effects balance.

lessons

~10 min

to learn

🔬 Science

subject

Adults

level

Start the course →

What you’ll learn

Set up the problemIdentify the pivot and calculate torque from force, distance, and angle.Torque depends on the force and its perpendicular lever arm, so name the pivot before calculating.
Read the turning effectUse the force angle and a sign convention to describe torque magnitude and direction.Perpendicular force maximizes torque, while the sign records the direction of the attempted rotation.
Balance the rotationAdd signed torques and distinguish rotational balance from complete static equilibrium.Zero net torque removes angular acceleration about an axis, but static equilibrium also requires zero net force.

Questions this course answers

What distance belongs in τ = Fd?

The lever arm is the shortest perpendicular distance from the pivot to the force's line of action.

What do torque signs encode?

The sign records the chosen clockwise or counterclockwise convention.

What does net torque equal to zero imply?

Zero net torque means the rotational effects balance about the selected axis.

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