not really sure about these two

torque= moment of inertia * angular acceleration
(T=i * alpha)

also
torque = force * arm length
T=Fxr is the more general form

but if the force is perpendicular you can just use force multiplied by the arm length

This post was edited by saber_x3 on Jul 28 2014 07:22pm

what is throwing me off is the cross and dot products of F and r. how do i even know what to do with those

well, simply ignore the dot ones (dot product isn't applicable)
it's cross product

you just need to know that torque is equal to T= r X F = I*α.

solve for α = r x F/I

then substitute I = mr^2

α = (r X F)/mr^2