Experiment 104 - Torque

Analysis Torque is the ability of force to change the rotational motion of a particle. It is also called the moment of force. It is always specified with regard to the axis of rotation. On the experiment the axis of rotation serves as the model balance. This means that as much as torque is directly proportional with the force applied on a particle, it is also dependent on the perpendicular distance of the applied force to the axis of rotation. On the first activity we need to determine the weight of the pans. At first we had a difficulty or rather error on the activity because we put weights on both of the pans which causes the equilibrium to be invalid. On the third activity we need to use the second hole in the beam as the axis of rotation so that the center of gravity of the beam does not pass through the new axis of rotation.

Conclusion: The experiment was done with the purpose to analyze systems in equilibrium using the second condition of equilibrium and to distinguish some of its use and significance. In the experiment we analyzed systems and how it is applied. After performing the experiment, I can therefore conclude that the torque is affected by the forces acting on the system and their radial distance from the axis of rotation, the shorter the lever arm the greater the force, the longer the lever arm the lesser the force.

Related Discussion
According to this condition, an object that is in equilibrium does not move along a straight line. This means that the sum of all forces applied on it is zero. Also, the sum of all the rotational forces on the object is zero due to which the object does not rotate. Thus, the second condition of equilibrium states that the sum of all the torques on an object that is in equilibrium is zero. The second condition assures those torques are also balanced. Torque is the rotational equivalent of a force in producing a rotation and is defined to be τ=rFsinθ , where τ is torque, r is the