Torque Torque Torque, moment, or moment of force is the rotational equivalent of linear force. The concept originated with the studies of Archimedes on the usage of levers. Just as a linear force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist to an object. The symbol for torque is typically formula_1, the lowercase Greek letter "tau". When being referred to as moment of force, it is commonly denoted by "M". In three dimensions, the torque is a pseudovector; for point particles, it is given by the cross product of the position vector (distance vector)
Torque converted to a (torque, rpm) pair. By using a larger rear gear, or by switching to a lower gear in multi-speed bicycles, angular speed of the road wheels is decreased while the torque is increased, product of which (i.e. power) does not change. Consistent units must be used. For metric SI units, power is watts, torque is newton metres and angular speed is radians per second (not rpm and not revolutions per second). Also, the unit newton metre is dimensionally equivalent to the joule, which is the unit of energy. However, in the case of torque, the unit is assigned