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Torque is defined as:
τ = rxF
this means that the farther from the rotation axis of a body a force is applied, the more it will tend to rotate the body.
My question is:
Can anybody give me a simple argument that a force applied farther from the rotation axis should be better at rotating a body than one closer. You can use energy considerations to say that the work done by a force applied at the farthest distance does a greater work, but I am not looking for that since it is not general enough. Because imagine that two tangential forces of equal length but opposite direction are being applied to our body. Then it will still rotate, and energy considerations can't really explain that.
So yeah, please give me an intuitive, yet rigorous reason that it MUST be so greater torque = no equilibrium.
τ = rxF
this means that the farther from the rotation axis of a body a force is applied, the more it will tend to rotate the body.
My question is:
Can anybody give me a simple argument that a force applied farther from the rotation axis should be better at rotating a body than one closer. You can use energy considerations to say that the work done by a force applied at the farthest distance does a greater work, but I am not looking for that since it is not general enough. Because imagine that two tangential forces of equal length but opposite direction are being applied to our body. Then it will still rotate, and energy considerations can't really explain that.
So yeah, please give me an intuitive, yet rigorous reason that it MUST be so greater torque = no equilibrium.