Newton metre

Newton metre is a unit of torque (also called "moment") in the SI system. Less commonly, it is used as a unit of energy, in which case it is synonymous with the more common and standard SI unit of energy, the joule. The symbolic form is N m or N·m, and sometimes hyphenated newton-metre. One newton metre is equal to the torque resulting from a force of one newton applied perpendicularly to a moment arm which is one metre long. A newton metre is di... more

Newton metre is a unit of torque (also called "moment") in the SI system. Less commonly, it is used as a unit of energy, in which case it is synonymous with the more common and standard SI unit of energy, the joule. The symbolic form is N m or N·m, and sometimes hyphenated newton-metre. One newton metre is equal to the torque resulting from a force of one newton applied perpendicularly to a moment arm which is one metre long. A newton metre is dimensionally equal to a joule, the SI unit of energy and work. However, it is not appropriate to express a torque in joules — the units are helpful to distinguish a torque quantity from an energy quantity. The two quantities, torque and energy, are physically quite different despite being dimensionally equivalent. For example, energy is a scalar while torque is a vector (in fact, a pseudovector). Also, a given force applied to an object can contribute torque but not work, or work but not torque, or both, or neither. Conversely, Newton metre is... less