Student intuitive ideas in mechanics, especially concerning the relationship between force and motion, have been the subject of much research. Many students find aspects of the topic of moments of forces to be stumbling blocks, yet there has been little or no research in this area. This paper reports on a small‐scale investigation of student understanding of moments of forces to provide some indication as to the nature of intuitive ideas in this area, and to provide some suggestions as to the appropriate teaching strategy. The results of the investigation suggests three stumbling blocks in the conceptual understanding of moments of forces. The first stumbling block seems to contain problems where the forces applied are still acting vertically, but the points of application of the forces are not at the same horizontal level. The second stumbling block seems to either contain problems where the forces applied are vertical but there is no obvious sense of symmetry, or problems that represent a conceptual link between moments and rotation. The third stumbling block contains questions whereby the student has to recognize the line of action of the appropriate force and take note of the point of application of the force.