What do torque and horsepower mean

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High-horsepower vehicles are designed for drivers who want speed and power under the hood. A sports car, for example, may outpace a large sedan even if it has the same horsepower rating it the sports car is lighter or more compact. A car with more horsepower could also offer better handling on the roads. Vehicles with higher horsepower ratings do still rely on torque, however.

These cars are designed to have the right balance between torque and horsepower for the best driving experience possible. Torque is a force multiplied by distance, and the easiest way to understand it is by using a wrench. As an individual provides force to the wrench, it travels a distance and provides torque to tighten a bolt. Combustion provides the force in a cylinder to press a piston down, which then presses down on a crankshaft at a specific distance. This is where the phrase "units of twist" comes from, since the piston and crankshaft provide a twisting force.

Horsepower, on the other hand, is the rate at which work is done. Torque multiplied by rpm returns horsepower. Basically, the faster the crankshaft spins with the same amount of force, the more power an engine will make. A car with more hp than torque will always be quicker since this gives a car acceleration and speed. Jason uses two hypothetical cars to illustrate all of this. Both have the exact same gear ratio, but one uses a diesel engine with pound-feet of torque, and the other uses a gasoline engine with lb-ft of torque.

The diesel engine with twice the torque will accelerate quicker initially because it has a greater sustained force to make more power. However, it only revs to 2, rpm. So for instance, if you use a 1-foot-long wrench to exert a force of 10 pounds on the end of a bolt, then you are applying a torque of 10 pound-feet 10 lb-ft.

For the third year in a row, a RAM truck has won the award for MotorTrend Truck of the Year, letting the world know—as well as its competition—that they know a thing or 2 when it comes to game-changing performance from a truck. Find out more. For instance, the greater the horsepower an engine produces, the higher the torque potential. This explains why a race car and a tractor that have the same amount of horsepower can vary so drastically.

In a race car, all the torque is used for speed through the gearing, whereas the tractor converts the horsepower into pushing and pulling extremely heavy weights. Another way to understand horsepower vs.

When you are using all your strength to open the jar, you are applying torque—regardless of whether or not the cap comes off.