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-----Original Message-----
From: Leigh Palmer [SMTP:palmer@SFU.CA]
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 2:26 PM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Re: joules versus newton.meters
1) Left to my own devices, I write torques as netwon.meters; onemotional
grounds I prefer newton.meters to joules.
I prefer foot-pounds or inch-pounds for my devices; I don't own a
torque wrench now, but my old one wasn't SI. On emotional grounds
I have little feeling for newton meters.
2) However, emotions are not physics. The physics says that if I let ajoules
torque of 5 newton.meters act through an angle of 3 radians, I do 15
of work. Therefore a newton.meter is, in a very physical sense, onejoule
per radian. Shortening this to one joule is perfectly acceptable.
Yup, perfectly acceptable if you are willing to toss out clarity
with that hypothetically dimensionless unit. I claim that it has
substance; one joule per radian means torque in my view, and one
joule does not.
Leigh