Torque

I found a glider in my house closet and realized that by spinning the glider and letting it go, I was demonstrating a concept called torque.

Torque is a measure of how much a force on an object causes it to rotate. How much torque depends on the amount of force and distance of the lever arm (from where the force is applied to the axis of rotation).

In the case of the glider, force was put on the glider to make it spin along its axis of rotation. The pivot point is at the top of the glider. The distance from the top of the glider to your hands is equal to the lever arm.

Torque is maximized if the distance of the lever arm is huge, there is a massive force, and force is perpendicular to the lever arm.