Are Newton’s Laws applicable to torque too

newtonian-mechanicsreference framesrotational-dynamicstorque

Since Torque is $Fd$ where $F$ is force, $d$ is perpendicular distance between line of action of force and axis of rotation, will Newtons Laws be applicable to torque too?

For e.g., if a force od $5N$ is acting on a body fixed $2m$ away from the point of action of force, producing a constant torque of $10Nm$, if we stop applying the force of $5N$, or we apply a force of $-5N$ to make the net force $0$, will the object still rotate due to Newtons first Law, or stop? I am asking this as torque depends on force directly.

Best Answer

You can still have a net torque with the net force being $0$. You do this wherever you turn a door knob, for example. The knob turns about its center, but the center of mass of the knob doesn't accelerate (assuming you don't move the door itself). Such an instance of zero net force and non-zero net torque is called a couple.

There are analogs of Newton's laws for torques and rotations though. For example, for an object rotating about a principle axis we have the analog of $F=ma$ as $\tau=I\alpha$, where $\tau$ is the torque $I$ is the moment of Inertia about the principle axis and $\alpha$ is the angular acceleration (all about the specified principle axis).

A more general form of this comes from the linear momentum $\mathbf p=m\mathbf v$ in the form of $\mathbf L=\hat I\boldsymbol\omega$ where $\mathbf L$ is the angular momentum vector, $\boldsymbol\omega$ is the angular velocity vector, and $\hat I$ is the moment of inertia tensor. Then, just like how $\dot{\mathbf p}=m\dot{\mathbf v}\to\mathbf F=m\mathbf a$, we have $\dot{\mathbf L}=\hat I\dot{\boldsymbol\omega}\to\boldsymbol\tau=\hat I\boldsymbol\alpha$

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