My professor told me torque can be calculated about any point in space, but would such a torque ever make sense even if the particle is rotating about some other axis, on which the point does not lie?
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This may help - Toppling of a cylinder on a block – mmesser314 Oct 03 '23 at 04:09
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There is a condition necessary before torques can be calculated about any point. Either you heard the prof wrong or the prof is wrong. But even if the particle is rotating about some other axis, it is possible to have a sensible accounting using such torques, although it is obviously more convenient to work with naturally chosen axes to compute the torques. – naturallyInconsistent Oct 03 '23 at 04:10
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@naturallyInconsistent , so what does torque do about a point not on the axis? do we take its component about the axis for it(torque) to make any physical sense? – Haria Kumar Oct 03 '23 at 04:16
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Did you ask your professor this question? – Bob D Oct 03 '23 at 06:27
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but would such a torque ever make sense even if the particle is rotating about some other axis, on which the point does not lie?
Yes. Both calculations should give the same result (assuming a non-accelerating object). But it may be much harder to calculate.
Forces on the line through the point of reference create no torque. So if there is an axle or a hinge there, we can ignore it for torque about that point.
If we consider a different point instead, the forces at the axle or hinge are now relevant (and possibly unknown).
BowlOfRed
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