gen-explain-torque-and-angular-momentum-as-you-would-to-a-capabl-72d2

Explain torque and angular momentum as you would to a capable student, in 3-4 sentences.

# Torque and Angular Momentum **Torque** is the rotational equivalent of force—it's what causes objects to spin or change their rotation. Just as force equals mass times acceleration (F=ma), torque equals the moment of inertia times angular acceleration (τ=Iα), and it depends on both how hard you push and how far from the rotation axis you push. **Angular momentum** is the rotational equivalent of linear momentum—it's the "quantity of rotation" an object has. A spinning object keeps spinning (conserving its angular momentum L=Iω) unless a torque acts on it, which is why figure skaters spin faster when they pull their arms in (decreasing I means ω must increase to keep L constant).