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

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The discussion focuses on calculating the torque and moment of a force vector about a specific point and line. The moment of the force vector is derived using the cross product, resulting in a vector that represents the torque. The unit vector along the line is confirmed, and the moment about the line is determined by projecting the torque vector onto this unit vector. A clarification is made regarding the nature of the dot product, emphasizing that it yields a scalar value rather than a vector. The conversation concludes with an acknowledgment of the correction regarding the dot product calculation.
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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.
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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!
 

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