Skip to main content
Post Closed as "Duplicate" by AccidentalFourierTransform, John Rennie, ACuriousMind, user36790, Qmechanic
Question Protected by Qmechanic
edited tags
Link
Qmechanic
  • 213.1k
  • 48
  • 590
  • 2.3k
edited title
Link
Richard Smith
  • 373
  • 1
  • 3
  • 6

What does the "moment" in the moment of force or the moment of inertia refersrefer to?

Source Link
Richard Smith
  • 373
  • 1
  • 3
  • 6

What does the "moment" in the moment of force or the moment of inertia refers to?

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary:

Moment - a very short period of time

Does the word "moment" in quantities like the moment of force or moment of inertia refer to this colloquial meaning of "moment" too? If so, where exactly is the "short period of time" involved in, say, moment of force? For me it has always been just the tendency of a force to rotate an object around an axis and I don't see any reference to time there.