A vector quantity given by the vector product of the force and the position vector where the force is applied; for a rotating body, the torque is the product of the moment of inertia and the resulting angular acceleration.

Forces can result from the interaction of magnetic fields. Pulsed magnetic field gradients can interact with the main magnetic field during the MRI scan, to produce acoustic noise through the gradient coil.
Magnetic fields attract ferromagnetic objects with forces, which can be a lethal danger if one is hit by an unrestrained object in flight. One could also be trapped between the magnet and a large unrestrained ferromagnetic object or the object could damage the MRI machine.
Access control and personnel awareness are the best preventions of such accidents. The attraction mechanism for ferromagnetic objects is that the magnetic field magnetizes the iron. This induced magnetization reacts with the gradient of the magnetic field to produce an attraction toward the strongest area of the field. The details of this interaction are very dependent on the shape and composition of the attracted object. There is a very rapid increase of force as one approaches a magnet. There is also a torque or twisting force on objects, e.g. a long cylinder (such as a pen or an intracranial aneurysm clip) will tend to align along the magnet's field lines. The torque increases with field strength while the attraction increases with field gradient.
Depending on the magnetic saturation of the object, attraction is roughly proportional to object mass. Motion of conducting objects in magnetic fields can induce eddy currents that can have the effect of opposing the motion.

See also Duty Cycle.

See also the related poll result: 'Most outages of your scanning system are caused by failure of'

A vector quantity given by the vector product of the momentum of a particle and its position vector. In the absence of external forces, the angular momentum remains constant, with the result that any rotating body tends to maintain the same axis of rotation. In the presence of torque applied to a rotating body in such a way as to change the direction of the rotation axis, the resulting change in angular momentum results in precession. Atomic nuclei possess an intrinsic angular momentum referred to as spin, measured in multiples of Planck's constant.

A pacemaker is a device for internal or external battery-operated cardiac pacing to overcome cardiac arrhythmias or heart block. All implanted electronic devices are susceptible to the electromagnetic fields used in magnetic resonance imaging. Therefore, the main magnetic field, the gradient field, and the radio frequency (RF) field are potential hazards for cardiac pacemaker patients.
The pacemaker's susceptibility to static field and its critical role in life support have warranted special consideration. The static magnetic field applies force to magnetic materials. This force and torque effects rise linearly with the field strength of the MRI machines. Both, RF fields and pulsed gradients can induce voltages in circuits or on the pacing lead, which will heat up the tissue around e.g. the lead tip, with a potential risk of thermal injury.
Regulations for pacemakers provide that they have to switch to the magnet mode in static magnetic fields above 1.0 mT. In MR imaging, the gradient and RF fields may mimic signals from the heart with inhibition or fast pacing of the heart. In the magnet mode, most of the current pacemakers will pace with a fix pulse rate because they do not accept the heartsignals. However, the state of an implanted pacemaker will be unpredictable inside a strong magnetic field. Transcutaneous controller adjustment of pacing rate is a feature of many units. Some achieve this control using switches activated by the external application of a magnet to open/close the switch. Others use rotation of an external magnet to turn internal controls. The fringe field around the MRI magnet can activate such switches or controls. Such activations are a safety risk.
Areas with fields higher than 0.5 mT (5 Gauss Limit) commonly have restricted access and/or are posted as a safety risk to persons with pacemakers.

A Cardiac pacemaker is because the risks, under normal circumstances an absolute contraindication for MRI procedures.
Nevertheless, with special precaution the risks can be lowered. Reprogramming the pacemaker to an asynchronous mode with fix pacing rate or turning off will reduce the risk of fast pacing or inhibition. Reducing the SAR value reduces the potential MRI risks of heating. For MRI scans of the head and the lower extremities, tissue heating also seems to be a smaller problem. If a transmit receive coil is used to scan the head or the feet, the cardiac pacemaker is outside the sending coil and possible heating is very limited.

A constant for any given nucleus that relates the nuclear MR frequency and the strength of the external magnetic field.
Definition: The ratio of the magnetic moment (field strength = T) to the angular momentum (frequency = ν) of a particle.
The gyromagnetic effect happens if a magnetic substance is subjected to a magnetic field. Upon a change in direction of the magnetic field, the magnetization of the substance must change. In order for this to happen, the atoms must change their angular momentum. Since there are no external torques acting on the system, the total angular momentum must remain constant. This mass rotation may be measured. The gyromagnetic ratio is different for each nucleus of different atoms. The value of the gyromagnetic ratio for hydrogen (1H) is 4,258 (Hz/G) (42.58 MHz/T).