Editing Moment (physics) (section)

{{short description|Product of a distance and physical quantity}}
{{Distinguish|Momentum}}
{{About||the mathematical concept|Moment (mathematics)|the moment of a force, sometimes shortened to "moment"|Torque}}
{{Classical mechanics|cTopic=Fundamental concepts}}

A '''moment''' is a mathematical expression involving the product of a distance and a physical quantity such as a [[force]] or [[electric charge]]. Moments are usually defined with respect to a fixed reference point and refer to physical quantities located some distance from the reference point. For example, the moment of force, often called [[torque]], is the product of a force on an object and the distance from the reference point to the object. In principle, any physical quantity can be multiplied by a distance to produce a moment. Commonly used quantities include forces, [[mass]]es, and [[electric charge]] distributions; [[Moment (physics)#See also|a list of examples]] is provided later.