Unit of torque with radians?

OP wrote(v1):

So the torque should not be measured in N⋅m but rad⋅N⋅m. Would that then be completely consistent?

No, that would not be consistent with the elementary definition of torque $\vec{\tau}=\vec{r} \times \vec{F}$ as a cross-product between a position vector $\vec{r}$ and a force vector $\vec{F}$.

An angle in radians is the ratio between the length of a circle arc and its radius, and is therefore dimensionless.

For instance, the angular version $\tau = I \alpha$ of Newton's 2nd law is only true (without an extra conversion factor) if the angle behind the angular acceleration $\alpha$ is measured in radians.

However, it should be mentioned that due to the formula

$$ W~=~\int \tau ~d\theta, $$

for angular work, torque can be viewed as energy per angle, i.e., the SI unit of torque is also Joules per radians. See also this Wikipedia page and this Phys.SE question.


Anthony French of MIT, in a private communication to me years ago, finally got me to understand when to write radians as a unit and when to omit it. Here is the answer.

If the quantity in question has a numerical value that depends on whether the angular unit is expressed in degrees, radians, revolutions, or something similar, then explicitly include the appropriate unit. If the quantity's numerical value does NOT depend on the angular unit, then omit the angular unit. As an example, consider angular velocity and linear velocity. Angular velocity's numerical value depends on whether one uses degrees or radians. $50\; \circ/s$ isn't the same as $50\; rad/s$. Linear velocity, though, has a numerical value that is independent of any angular unit so when we calculate $v = \omega r$ we never write $\frac{rad \cdot m}{s}$ as the unit. We simply write $m/s$.

Tags:

Torque

Units