[Doug G]

I tell my class each year that N*m for torque and Energy may be the same units multiplied together, but when it is for Energy we can use the derived unit Joule. How is the Joule derived? It comes from the scalar product of Force and Distance. Torque is the Cross Product of Force and Distance. Probably why "BanksKid" used Nxm as being different from N*m. The point is somewhat moot since units are just labels, there is no vector quality to them; which is why we have unit vectors, bold print, arrows on top of symbols to help denote these subtlities.