Sometimes, even with a wrench, one cannot loosen a nut that is frozen tightly to a bolt. It is often possible to loosen the nut by slipping one end of a long pipe over the wrench handle and pushing at the other end of the pipe. With the aid of the pipe, does the applied force produce a smaller torque, a greater torque, or the same torque on the nut?

Question

Physics

Bella

4 January, 15:46

Sometimes, even with a wrench, one cannot loosen a nut that is frozen tightly to a bolt. It is often possible to loosen the nut by slipping one end of a long pipe over the wrench handle and pushing at the other end of the pipe. With the aid of the pipe, does the applied force produce a smaller torque, a greater torque, or the same torque on the nut?

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Answers (1)

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Larry Buckley · Answer 1

Torque is defined as the product of force and the perpendicular distance from the application of force.

It is a vector quantity.

Torque = force x perpendicular distance

To loosen a nut, if we increase the amount of distance, the torque is increased by applying a little amount of force and hence it is easy to open the nut.

Thus, it is easy to open a nut by slipping one end of a long pipe over the wrench handle and pushing at the other end of the pipe so that the torque is more and the nut is loosen.