Torque-Big Jobs Made Simple

As you look around you, physics is everywhere. Sometimes we fail to realize that it is at work in some of the simplest daily activities.

I can remember my dad showing me how to change a flat tire when I was 16. The person who had put the tire on the car had over-tightened the nuts and made it seem impossible for me to loosen them on my own. My dad attached a longer pipe to the end of the lug wrench and, voila!, the nuts came loose.

I have since brought tires into class whose nuts had been over-tightened with an impact wrench and had some of the biggest guys in the class attempt to remove them with an ordinary lug wrench, and then had a smaller student attempt it with my extended one. Needless to say, my smaller students made it seem so simple and laughed at the effort put forth by the big guys.