Moment

A moment of a force is essentially a measure of how much a force causes an object to rotate about a point or axis.

What affects the moment?

The turning force about any point (P) will be greater if the:

• force is greater
• perpendicular distance from P to the line in the direction of the force

What’s the distance measuring?

Suppose we had this setup (p is the object, or pivot), and we pushed down at point A:

P            A           
+------------+
 < -- 4m -- > 

The line of action of the force would be:

P            A           
+------------+
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