I recall being told once that hollow rods/shafts tend to resist torsion more than solid rods/shafts...but I wasn't told why this is the case.
Now that I'm a little older, running this "fact" through my mind, my intuition tells me that a solid rod should be able to resist torsion better than a hollow one (assuming the wall of the hollow one is thick enough to withstand being "dimpled" in the process).
But I need this verified.
A quick spot of Googling didn't lead to any answers (maybe it did, but I couldn't comprehend most of the stuff out there...way off-topic for a high-school student).
Physics.SE has this post that's similar to my question; however, that post requires a comparison between a hollow shaft's and a solid shaft's resistance to bending, whereas I want to know about their resistance to torsion.
I (vaguely) understood the ideas expressed in the answers there (still trying to wrap my head around the "second moment of inertia")...but I'm not sure if those ideas apply to torsion as well as bending of the shafts.
Can someone tell me (in a simplified way...not too simplified though, I don't want to miss out on all the good stuff) why a hollow shaft tends to resist torsion better than a solid one?
(Since it was mentioned in the question I linked)
The two possible cases that arise are : $1)$ Solid and hollow rods of same diameter, $2)$ Solid and hollow rods of same mass.