Question

What three factors affect the torque created by a force relative to a specific pivot point?

Short answer

The three factors are the force, the radius of rotation and the angle between the force and the radius of rotation.

Step-by-step solution

Torque

The torque depends on the applied force F is given by,

$\overrightarrow{\tau }=\overrightarrow{R}\times \overrightarrow{F}$

Here, is the distance of the pivot point from the point of application of the force.

Explanation

We again can write the torque as,

$\tau =RF\sin \theta$

Here, $\theta$is the angle between the applied force and the distance of the applied force and the point of rotation.

So, the torque depends on

i) the applied force,

ii) the distance of the pivot point from the applied force and

iii) the angle between the applied force and the distance of the applied force and the pivot point.

Hence, the force, the radius of rotation, and the angle between the force and the radius of rotation are the three factors.