On Mon, 24 Jul 1995 Bombur2@aol.com wrote:
>
> I've asked several people about the differences/similarities between
> horsepower and torque, and each time the vague response is prefaced by head
> scratching and " Well, I'm not sure but"..
Horsepower is a power, and as such relates to work done in a fixed period
of time. Power is work / time. Effectively, horsepower indicates the
maximum speed your car could reach, given the proper gearing. The
horsepower of your car does battle against rolling resistance, drive
train resistance and air resistance.
Torque is a force acting at a distance. This is why its units are
something like lbs-ft. To conceptually grasp it, torque is the amount of
twisting force the engine possesses. This is the important stuff for lbc's.
The higher the torque, the better the get up and go.
The horsepower can be calculated by knowing the torque at a given rpm.
R. Kyle Schmidt
Lucas Three Position Switch: Dim, Flicker, Off.
http://calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/u/rkschmid/
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