How do I calculate the torque required to rotate a cube?

Answer 1

Torque is force times the moment arm orthogonal to the axis of revolution.

Did you have some particular problem in mind?


Doug

Answer 2

It depends on the point about which the cube is rotated
torque= moment of inertia x angular acceleration
if u are rotatin it about the the centre of mass with the axis of rotation perpendicular to the face of the cube... then the moment of inertia = 1/6 m x a x a (a=edge length of the cube, m=mass).as the axis of rotation changes the moment of inertia of the cube changes and hence the torque required to produce a particular angular acceleration changes.

Answer 3

The required torque only depends on the bearing/bushing losses and aerodynamic losses. For the ideal loss less bearing (ignoring air friction) you would need zero torque once the object had reached its final angular velocity. If on the other hand you needed the torque to accelerate your object to the given final angular velocity in a given time, then the torque required would depend on the rotational inertia of the object.

Answer 4

torque is force times it's perpendicular distance.

so find the distance from the centroid of the cube to the edge.

but there might be more to your problem that you didn't list.