behaviours of these constituting particles in changed conditions of force or
torque. Torque is basically the turning effect of a force. Force generally
... [Show More] has a tendency to
cause a body to rotate about a certain axis. Since torque is the product of distance and
force, hence units are N/m. The specific axis of rotation therefore must be zero. The amount
of external force or torque is relative to the torque caused by a given force.
Equilibrium is defined as any point where the total amount of external force or torque is
zero, this point may be anywhere near the center of mass. Torques give rise to rotation
about an axis either clockwise positive or counter clockwise negative, in this laboratory, the
consideration of the clockwise torques and counter clockwise torques was taken into
account. A meter rule was used as a rigid body to which forces were applied to reach
mechanical equilibrium. For a complete equilibrium of a rigid body, two conditions must be
ensured which are translational equilibrium and rotational equilibrium. Translational
equilibrium however, is acquired when the vector sum of all the forces acting on the body is
zero. Rotational equilibrium is acquired if the size of sum of counter clockwise torques is the
same as sum of the clockwise torques.
Torque depends on the angular velocity of the object to change and three other factors:
force magnitude, force direction and point of application, some of examples of torque in our
day-today life include a person spinning a bike wheel or pushing a merry go round.
Rotational equilibrium is an important concept in biomechanics as it describes a mechanical
situation where the moments (rotational forces) acting in one direction across an axis of
rotation are exactly equal to the moments acting in the opposite direction across that axis
and the independent condition of force and torque helps in reaching the rigid bodies to a
state of mechanical equilibrium. Moreover, translation equilibrium is a condition that
depends on a particle’s behavior, therefore the vector sum of forces on all the particles
must be zero. If we can tell that on object is in translational equilibrium, we can use this to
help find all the forces affecting that object. [Show Less]