I’m attempting to explain torsion in layman’s terms to my class before jumping into the formula.
Some people explain torsion as a “measure of how fast (or hard) a curve twists out of its plane.” I believe they mean the osculating plane correct? Is there a better way to explain this at an intuitive level?
I'm trying to think of it in terms of a slinky with varying degrees of how much it is stretched out.
Is it true to say that torsion will be minimized when the slinky is either collapsed completely or stretched to a straight line? This would imply there is a certain point in the middle of stretching where the slinky has max torsion correct? How could I describe this maximum in terms of the slinky to my students? Is it when the slinky is rising at a rate of 1 unit per 1 unit arc length? It seems that as I stretch the slinky it will increase in torsion from 0 up to a point and then stop and then decrease to 0. I want to describe that point physically.
