Question

if a torque of 55.0 N/m is required and the largest force that can be exerted by you is 135 N what is th e length of the lever arm that must be used?

Answer 1

Answer:

$r=0.41m$

Explanation:

Torque is defined as the cross product between the position vector ( the lever arm vector connecting the origin to the point of force application) and the force vector.

$\tau=r\times F$

Due to the definition of cross product, the magnitude of the torque is given by:

$\tau=rFsin\theta$

Where $\theta$ is the angle between the force and lever arm vectors. So, the length of the lever arm (r) is minimun when $sin\theta$ is equal to one, solving for r:

$r=\frac{\tau}{F}\\r=\frac{55\frac{N}{m}}{135N}\\r=0.41m$