A wrench with a length of 15cm is used to unscrew a 52cm bolt. If a torque of 15Nm is needed to overcome the friction keeping the bolt in place, what is the minimum torque that must be applied to the wrench to unscrew the bolt?
1 Answer
Aug 19, 2017
Explanation:
I assume the question is meant to ask what is the minimum force required to unscrew the bolt.
Torque is given by:
⇒τ=rFsinϕ
- Where
F is the applied force,r is the distance from the pivot (axis of rotation) that the force is applied, andϕ is the angle at which the force is applied (measured counterclockwise).
We can rearrange the equation to find the necessary force
⇒F=τrsinϕ
We are given the following information:
-
↦r=15cm=0.15m -
↦τ=15Nm
It is implied that
Note that I am not including the radius of the bolt in the measurement of the total radius because it should not affect the distance from the applied force to the bolt itself.
Therefore, we have:
⇒F=15Nm0.15m
⇒=100N