Help me confirm I got the right answer: finding the torque F

  • Thread starter Thread starter maguss182
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Torque
maguss182
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Homework Statement
Can someone just go over this to see if I got it correct, I got this wrong in my midterm and I'm trying to redo it to make sure I got it correct the second time.
Relevant Equations
what tripped me up was getting the n unit vector, I got 1/sqrt40 originally, but I think I got it right this time.
sidewaysDark02better.jpg

sidewaysDark01better.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Physics news on Phys.org
I think you have the general idea, although it's not quite correct. Take any point on the line, say ##\mathbf{r}_0 = (0,9,0)##, as you chose. The moment of ##\mathbf{F}## about this point is
\begin{align*}
\mathbf{G} = (\mathbf{r} - \mathbf{r}_0) \times \mathbf{F} = (6, -9, -1) \times (2,0,6) = (-54, -38, 18)
\end{align*}The unit vector along the line, as you wrote, is ##\mathbf{n} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{58}} (7,0,-3)##. The moment of ##\mathbf{F}## about the line is the projection of ##\mathbf{G}## onto ##\mathbf{n}##, which is a scalar:
\begin{align*}
\mathbf{G} \cdot \mathbf{n} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{58}} (-54, -38, 18) \cdot (7,0,-3) = \dots
\end{align*}(It doesn't matter which point on the line you choose, because if you consider the point, say, ##\mathbf{r}_0 + \alpha \mathbf{n}##, then you have an extra term ##-\alpha \mathbf{n} \times \mathbf{F}## in the moment which vanishes upon taking the scalar product with ##\mathbf{n}##.)
 
oh shoot, so it would be 1/sqrt58 (-378, 0,-54)?
 
maguss182 said:
oh shoot, so it would be 1/sqrt58 (-378, 0,-54)?
Not quite, because the result of a dot product is a number, i.e. ##(a_1,a_2,a_3) \cdot (b_1,b_2,b_3) = a_1 b_1 + a_2 b_2 + a_3 b_3##.
 
right got it, thanks!
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...

Similar threads

Replies
9
Views
1K
Replies
17
Views
2K
Replies
20
Views
3K
Replies
2
Views
910
Replies
37
Views
2K
Replies
12
Views
902
Replies
3
Views
6K
Replies
22
Views
2K
Back
Top