Kinetics deals with states that are not in mechanical equilibrium. According to Newton's second law, an external force leads to a change in velocity (acceleration) of a body. Analogously an external torque means a change in angular velocity resulting in an angular acceleration. The inertia relating to rotation depends not only on the mass of a body but also on its spatial distribution. With a rigid body this is expressed by the moment of inertia. With a rotation around a fixed axis, the torque is proportional to the angular acceleration with the moment of inertia as proportionality factor. Here it is to be noted that the moment of inertia is not only dependent on the position of the axis of rotation (see Steiner Theorem) but also on its direction. Should the above law be formulated more generally for any axis of rotation then the inertia tensor must be used.