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The turning effect of a force

Forces can make things accelerate. They can do something else

as well: they can make an object turn round. We say that they
can have a turning effect. Figure 4.16 shows how to use a
spanner to turn a nut (a fastener with a threaded hole).
To maximise the turning effect of his force, the operator pulls
close to the end of the spanner, as far as possible from the pivot
(the centre of the nut) and at 90° to the spanner.

Figure 4.16: A mechanic turns a nut.

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Opening the Door

❖ When A force (a pull or push) acts on a door,

there is a turn.

The turning effect of a force is called the moment of the force.

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How Moment of force works

Why does the boy require more effort

to pull the doorknob when it is nearer
to the hinges(figure 1)?

Figure 1: The force needed to pull a door to open depends on where it is applied.

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 Figure 2 shows the free-body diagrams of the door
for two situations shown in figure 1. When the boy pulls(i.e. applies
a force to) the doorknob, the door turns at the hinge.
The hinge is a fixed point called the pivot,
represented by a small triangles. Door

Hinge(i.e., pivot) Force A

(a) A small pull (i.e. force A) is applied on the door that is far form the hinge (i.e pivot)
Door

Hinge(i.e., pivot)
Force B
(b) A large pull (i.e. force B) is applied on the door that is near form the hinge (i.e pivot)

Figure 2 Freebody diagram of a door being pulled open

Figure 1: The force needed to pull a door
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to open depends on where it is applied.
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Calculating Moment

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Changing Direction
• When a force acts at
90 degrees to an
object’s direction of
travel, the force will
cause that object to
change direction

When the two cars collide, the first car changes its
direction in the direction of the force
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More Examples

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The Principle of Moment

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➢ This girl can do this by moving towards the pivot.
Then her weight will have less turning effect, because it will be closer to the pivot.

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➢ A seesaw will be balanced when the moments on both sides of the pivot are equal and opposite.

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❖ In Figure 4.10, three forces are shown
acting downwards. There is also the
weight of the see-saw itself, 200 N, to
consider, which also acts downwards,
through its midpoint.

❖ If these were the only forces acting,

they would make the see-saw
accelerate downwards. Another force
acts to prevent this from happening.
There is an upward contact force where Figure 4.12: A force diagram for the see-saw shown in
the see-saw sits on the pivot. Figure Figure 4.10. The upward contact force of the pivot on the
4.12 shows all five forces. see-saw balances the downward forces of the children’s
weights and the weight of the see-saw itself. The contact
force has no moment about the pivot because it acts
through the pivot. The weight of the see-saw is another
force that acts through the pivot, so it also has no
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moment about the pivot.
Because the see-saw is in equilibrium, we can calculate this contact force. It must
balance the four downward forces, so its value is (500 + 200 + 400 + 300) N = 1400
N, upwards. This force has no turning effect because it acts through the pivot. Its
distance from the pivot is zero, so its moment is zero.

Now we have satisfied the two conditions that must be met if an object is to be in
equilibrium:

• there must be no resultant force acting on it

• total clockwise moment = total anticlockwise moment.

You can use these two rules to solve problems concerning the forces acting on
objects in equilibrium.
Sometimes we know that the forces and moments acting on an object are balanced.
Then we can say that it is in equilibrium. Sometimes we know the reverse, namely,
that an object is in equilibrium. Then we can say that there is no resultant force on
it, and no resultant moment.
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Centre of gravity
We have weight because of the force of gravity of the Earth
on us. Each part of our body – arms, legs, head, for example
– experiences a force, caused by the force of gravity.
However, it is much simpler to picture the overall effect of
gravity as acting at a single point.

➢ This is our centre of gravity – the point where all the

weight of the object may be considered to act.

For a person standing upright, the centre of gravity is

roughly in the middle of the body, behind the navel. For a
sphere, it is at the centre.
❖ It is much easier to solve problems if we simply indicate Figure 4.14: The dashed line indicates the
an object’s weight by a single force acting at the centre of path of the athlete’s centre of gravity,
gravity, rather than a large number of forces acting on which follows a smooth trajectory through
each part of the object. Figure 4.14 illustrates this point. the air. With his body curved like this, the
The athlete performs a complicated manoeuvre. athlete’s centre of gravity is actually
However, we can see that his centre of gravity follows a outside his body, just below the small of
smooth, parabolic path through the air. his back. At no time is the whole of his
body above the bar.
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Stability and Centre of Gravity

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A tall glass can be knocked over easily – it is
unstable. Figure 4.19 shows what happens if
the glass is tilted.
✓ In Figure 4.19a, the glass is upright. Its weight
acts downwards and the contact force of the
table acts upwards. The two forces are in line,
and the glass is in equilibrium.

✓ In Figure 4.19b, the glass is tilted slightly to the

right, and the forces are no longer in line. There is
a pivot at the point where the base of the glass is
in contact with the table. The line of the glass’s
weight is to the left of this pivot, so it has an
anticlockwise moment, which tends to tip the
Figure 4.19: A tall glass is easily toppled. Once glass back to its upright position.
the line of action of its weight is beyond the
edge of the base the glass tips right over. ✓ In Figure 4.19c, the glass is tipped further. Its
weight acts to the right of the pivot, and has a
clockwise moment, which makes the glass tip
right over.
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Centre of gravity
In Figure 4.19, the weight of the glass is represented by an
arrow starting at a point inside the liquid.
Why is this?
❖ The reason is that the glass behaves as if all of its mass were
concentrated at this point, known as the centre of gravity.
❖ The force of gravity acts on the mass of the glass – each bit
of the glass is pulled by the Earth’s gravity. However, rather
than drawing lots of weight arrows, one for each bit of the
glass, it is simpler to draw a single arrow acting through the
Figure 4.19: A tall glass is easily toppled. Once the
centre of gravity. (Because we can think of the weight of the
line of action of its weight is beyond the edge of
glass acting at this point, it is sometimes known as the
the base the glass tips right over.
centre of gravity.)

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Centre of gravity

Figure 4.20 shows the position of the centre of gravity for

several objects. A person is fairly symmetrical, so their
centre of gravity must lie somewhere on the axis of
symmetry. (This is because half of their mass is on one
side of the axis, and half on the other.) The centre of
gravity is in the middle of the body, roughly level with the
navel. A ball is much more symmetrical, and its centre of
gravity is at its centre.

➢ For an object to be stable, it should have a low centre

of gravity and a wide base. The pyramid in Figure 4.20
is an example of this. The high-wire artiste shown in
Figure 4.18 has to adjust her position so that her
centre of gravity remains above her base, which is the
point where her feet make contact with the wire.

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Centre of Mass

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Stability and Toppling

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Toppling
The position of the centre of gravity of an
When does an object topple? object affects whether or not it topples over
easily.
This is important in the design of such things as
tall vehicles (which tend to overturn when
rounding a corner), racing cars, reading lamps
and even drinking glasses.
An object topples when the vertical line
through its centre of gravity falls outside its
base, as in Figure 1.5.31a. Otherwise it remains
stable, as in Figure 1.5.31b, where the object
will not topple.

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Balanced or unbalanced?
We can use the idea of the moment of a force to solve two sorts of problem. We
can:
check whether an object will remain balanced or start to rotate
calculate an unknown force or distance if we know that an object is balanced.

We can use the principle of moments to solve problems.

✓ The principle of moments states that, for any object that is in equilibrium, the
sum of the clockwise moments about any point provided by the forces acting
on the object equals the sum of the anticlockwise moments about that same
point.
Note that, for an object to be in equilibrium, we also require that no resultant
force acts on it. Worked examples 2, 3 and 4 illustrate how we can use these ideas
to determine unknown forces.

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The see-saw will remain balanced, because the 20 N
force is twice as far from the pivot as the 40 N Step 1 Determine the anticlockwise moment:
force. moment of anticlockwise force = 20 × 2.0 = 40 N m
To prove this, we need to think about each force
individually. Which direction is each force trying to Step 2 Determine the clockwise moment:
turn the see-saw, clockwise or anticlockwise? The 20 moment of clockwise force = 40 × 1.0 = 40 N m
N force is tending to turn the see-saw anticlockwise,
while the 40 N force is tending to turn it clockwise. Step 3 We can see that:
clockwise moment = anticlockwise moment
So the see-saw is balanced and therefore does not
rotate. The see-saw is in equilibrium. 49
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4 Figure 4.20 shows the internal structure of a
human arm holding an object. The biceps is a
muscle attached to one of the bones of the
forearm. This muscle provides an upwards force.

Figure 4.20: The human arm. For Worked

example 4.

An object of weight 50 N is held in the hand with the forearm at right angles to the upper arm. Use

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Figure 4.21: Simplified diagram
showing forces on the forearm. For
Worked example 4. Note that another
force acts on the arm at the elbow; we
do not know the size or direction of
this force but we can ignore it by taking
moments about the elbow. 52
Thank you
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Normal reaction contact forces

If a body touches another body, there is a force of reaction or contact force

between the two bodies.This force is perpendicular to the surface of the body
exerting the force. Like tension, the origin of this force is also electromagnetic. In
Figure 2.29 we show the reaction force on several bodies.

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Thank you
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