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The vector sum of a system of non-collinear forces acting on a rigid body is given to be non-zero. If the vector sum of all the torques due to the system of forces about a certain point is found to be zero, does this mean that it is necessarily zero about any arbitrary point?

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The vector sum of all torques due to forces at a point is 0.  Let us assume that \tau be the torque about a point P

Then \tau =\tau _{1}+\tau _{2}+............+\tau _{n}=\sum _{i=1}^{n}\overrightarrow{r_{i}} \times \overrightarrow{F_{i}}=0   (as per question)

Now torque about any other point say A will be given by

\sum _{i=1}^{n}(\overrightarrow{r_{i}}-a) \times \overrightarrow{F_{i}}=\sum _{i=1}^{n}\overrightarrow{r_{i}} \times \overrightarrow{F_{i}}-a\sum _{i=1}^{n}\overrightarrow{F_{i}}

Since a and \sum _{i=1}^{n}\overrightarrow{F_{i}} are not equal to zero. Thus the sum of all torques about any arbitrary point is not 0 necessarily.

 

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