what is torque? explain briefly with examples
Answers
Torque in Everyday Life
When we hear the term 'torque' brought up, it's most often in the context of automobiles. Torque is one of the terms commonly thrown around to describe how powerful a car is, but what exactly does it mean? In a car, torque is the force that pistons put on the crankshaft, causing it and the wheels to turn.
While often considered an automotive term, torque is actually a general physics term that has many applications. Torque is defined as a twisting force that tends to cause rotation. We call the point where the object rotates the axis of rotation. You use torque every day without realizing it. You apply torque three times when you simply open a locked door. Turning the key, turning the doorknob, and pushing the door open so it swings on its hinges are all methods of applying a torque.
Physics of Torque
In order to find a linear force we need to know a mass and an acceleration. However, torque is a little different, thanks to rotation being involved. Think about opening a door. Where do you push on it when you want it to open? You push on the side of the door where there are no hinges because pushing on the side with the hinges would make it much harder to open. So for torque, we need to know not only the mass and acceleration of a linear force, but also how far that force is from the axis of rotation, since we can get different results depending on that, as well. We can see this in the diagram and equation for torque.
T = F * r * sin(theta)
T = torque
F = linear force
r = distance measured from the axis of rotation to where the linear force is applied
theta = the angle between F and r
In our equation, sin(theta) has no units, r has units of meters (m), and F has units of Newtons (N). Combining these together, we see that a unit of torque is a Newton-meter (Nm).
Finally, theta is needed to take into account the direction from which the linear force is being applied. The force will not always be pushed from straight on like a door. It can come from many different angles.
Torque is defined as a twisting force that tends to cause rotation. We call the point where the object rotates the axis of rotation. You use torque every day without realizing it.best example for this is a vehicle that we use in day to day life.
Starting a geared vehicle on first gear and not fourth gear. Because first gear can take more torque due to maxium number of gears.