3 ms·
It's force per unit area, sounds like pressure.
by mfukar 16y ago
It's force per unit area, sounds like pressure.
- hugh3 16y agoUh, isn't a pound-per-square-inch a pressure? A foot-pound-per-square-inch is a rather odd unit of energy.
- a1k0n 16y agoYes, a foot-pound per square inch would be a unit of torque per area. Maybe the bullet twisted its way in.
- jimmyk 16y agoNot exactly. Here, foot-pound refers to the energy of the bullet, which can be calculated by taking the dot product of the force and the distance, where the force and distance refer to how far the bullet could exert some force. Taking the dot product means that only the components of the force and distance that are in the same direction are used to calculate the result. When calculating torque, the force is applied in a direction perpendicular to the distance that is measured, because the distance refers to the distance between the place where the force is exerted and the center of rotation. Therefore torque is calculated by taking the cross product of the force and the distance. So while the units look the same, what they are measuring is different.