Answer: Calculate Torque: 0.8 Nm

  • Thread starter Viraam
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    Torque
In summary, the Classroom door is of width 50 cm. If the Handle of the door is 20 cm from the edge and Force of 5N is applied on the handle. Calculate the torque?
  • #36
NickAtNight said:
Please let them know they have a math errors in their problem !
Question 1 geez ! Let's fix it.

Torque = F × d
= 2 N x 0.4 m
= 0.8 N-m.

Fixes
1) The force is 2N not 20 N !
2) You put the numbers into the equation in the same order. They flipped them and put in distance force instead of Force Distance
3) the answer is 0.8 N-m not 8 N-m

Question 2 - aw man ! Question is bad.

1) why did they change the door width?
They should have left it the same for the concept they showing - moving in the Force from the doors edge

2) the fancy door handle should have wen simpler. No dividing by two. Just position the handle x distance in and be done with it. I would do a fancy handle in the third exercise, not the second.

3) they changed the force from 2 N to 5 N from the first problem, but then revert to 2N in the problem!

Let's leave the Force at 2N
Leave the width at 40 cm
Put the handle at 10 cm from the doors edge
So handle to hinges is door width less handle distance = 40 - 10 = 30 cm

So force times distance is 2 N * 0.3 m is 0.6 N-m

POINT: Oh, and are they kidding about the 'classroom' door width. Is this a classroom for midgets? How wide should a classroom door be... 36" is probably standard these days. At 2.4 cm to the inch these doors need to be 92 cm wide !
You are right. No classroom door can be so small.
 
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  • #37
NickAtNight said:
Correct.

Pointer: always write down the units.
Do a unit analysis and make sure you end up with the right result.

Test problems like to mix and match units to catch you sleeping. Like the sample problem using cm when you are going to use m.

In this case. F is in N-m
The distance is in m
So when you divide the F by the d
The meters cancel and you are left with N

## \frac {N-m} {m} = N ##

If you distance was in cm, then you would have to multiply by 100 cm/m so that you can cancel out the cm and the m to gave only N left

## \frac {N-m} {cm} = N-m/cm##

## \frac {N-m} {cm} \frac {100 cm} {m}= N##

Unit analysis is an important skill to learn. It allows you to find silly math errors caused by using the wrong units in an equation. It also allows your error checker/ reviewer to quickly check your results
Thanks for the tip.
 
  • #38
NickAtNight said:
Close. The math is correct. (5N * 2^.5/5 = 3.5 N

The Force on the door is 5N at 45 degrees

You are splitting that force into two forces!

Since the angle is 45 degrees, the two new forces are the same size.

One Force is perpendicular to the door.
The other Force is parallel to the door.

Each Force has a distance from the door hinges.

For the Force perpendicular, the lever are Is the width from the hinges.

For the Force parallel to the door, the distance is zero. So the parallel force does not apply any torque.
I agree that one force is perpendicular but how is the other force parallel.
Now the force is 3.5N and thec lever arm is 0.3m so torque is ##3.5N \times 0.3m=1.05Nm##
Am I right.
 
  • #39
NickAtNight said:
Close. The math is correct. (5N * 2^.5/5 = 3.5 N

The Force on the door is 5N at 45 degrees

You are splitting that force into two forces!

Since the angle is 45 degrees, the two new forces are the same size.

One Force is perpendicular to the door.
The other Force is parallel to the door.

Each Force has a distance from the door hinges.

For the Force perpendicular, the lever are Is the width from the hinges.

For the Force parallel to the door, the distance is zero. So the parallel force does not apply any torque.
I do understand that when force is applied parallel then there is no perpendicular distance so it's 0 and the troque is also zero.
 
  • #40
Viraam said:
I do understand that when force is applied parallel then there is no perpendicular distance so it's 0 and the troque is also zero.
Correct.

When we split a force into 2, we have to calculate the torque from both forces.

But because of how we split the forces, one of the Torques is zero. So we ignore that Force.
 
  • #41
NickAtNight said:
Correct.

When we split a force into 2, we have to calculate the torque from both forces.

But because of how we split the forces, one of the Torques is zero. So we ignore that Force.
How is one force parallel when we split a right angle equally. Thanks for helping
 

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  • #42
Viraam said:
How is one force parallel when we split a right angle equally. Thanks for helping

Nice picture. Suggested upgrades:
5N Force line
1) Put an arrow at the end of the 5N force. This shows what direction it is going in.
2) Did you use a compass to get the angle precise?
3) Did you make the length a nice length so that you can use a ruler and graph paper to solve the problem easily? If you have a ruler with inches, then let 1" equal 5N (for example). Then this line should be 5" long. This size easily fits on a single sheet of paper. The larger you make the problem, the more accurate the ruler method is for getting the right answer. If you have a metric ruler, perhaps you let 4 cm = 1 N. So then the line would be 5*4 = 20 cm long. Got it?

Vertical Force line
2) Shorten the vertical line for the second force. It may not be any taller than the 5N Force line.
3) Now if you measure the length of the line, you have your answer directly with no maths...
4) Use a different color for this line. So it is easily visually different from the original line.
5) Put an arrow on the end of it so that we know what direction it is going.

Horizontal Force line
5) You didn't draw your horizontal force line.
6) Same rules apply as for the vertical force line.
7) Angle between the Vertical and Horizontal lines must be 90 degrees. This makes the lines 'orthoganal'.
8) Draw this line in the same color as the vertical line. They are related. They are the two resulting lines when you split the 5N Force line.
9) What is the length of this line going to be? Same rule applies as did for the vertical line. It must be the same horizontal length as the 5N force line.
Note: Typically we would start at the 0 point for the 5N line and go left (in this case) until we reach the vertical line.
10) You can measure the length of this line, apply your scale factor (1"=5N or 4 cm = 5N) and read the Force straight of your graph with no additional maths.

Note: You do not have to draw the lines 'vertical' and 'horizontal'. You can draw them at any angle you wish. The only rule is that they start at the start of the 5N force, they must be perpendicular (orthogonal) to each other, and they must end at the end of the 5N force.
 

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