ok if torque makes the car go...

what the heck is the horse power for???

 

To pul the wagons. Derrrrrrrrr. ;)

 

oh too funny

 

owned doh.



http://www.allpar.com/eek/hp-vs-torque.html

http://vettenet.org/torquehp.html

 

ok thats stuff is still way over my head can you please translate that for me(dumb it down)purdy pls

 

HP is a measure of power and torque is a measure of force. A low horsepower engine with a lot of torque will have a very narrow powerband and not really be able to take advantage of gearing. A high horsepower engine with very little torque would require lots of gears because each the torque would be too little to accelerate the car. A high horsepower engine with high torque would pull hard in each gear. A low horsepower engine with low torque would be, um, a paperweight.

I guess an easier way to say it is that torque is how hard it pulls in each gear, and horsepower is how few gears it needs, and its top speed.

A high-torque 200 hp engine hooked up to 2-speed powerglide tranny is going to pull a lot longer than a low-torque 200 hp engine hooked up to a 5 speed.

The torque gives pulling power, the horsepower gives driveability.

 

Simply put, HP is a measure of power in a unit of time.

Torque is twisting force..

Torque wins races, HP sells cars....

 

Reading all this stuff makes me

-THE DON

 

thanks mfbenson

i know understand more things. wohoo.

 

you got that right and i got bored reading all of that too i just want the short and sweet answer

i guess i shouldn't ask on how things work they just do even if they don't follow the rules of phyics

i think i'll just go here instead to find my answers http://www.howstuffworks.com/

 

I gave you a 3 line answer to your question. Too hard to understand? Others took the time to answer and all you do is get bored and _____. Sorry.. I'll be sure to ignore your posts in the future...

 

sweeet, so what most ppl have short att. spans anyways

i get bored easily, i got bored of my ex and she divored me for it too and i'm credit history is f!@$ed now oh well

 

Umm, yes and no. If you were competing in the Semi-truck olympics, torque would be king, but in the real world, you need both. Your point about HP selling cars is accurate, but an engine producing zero 20hp and 400lb-ft would be as useless as an engine producing 400hp and 20lb-ft. Ideally, the balance is tuned towards the engine's application.

Power and Force are two completely different units in physics. . . power equates to work/time, and torque equates to force in a rotational direction.

Here is a simple analogy. . . if you are really strong, you could unfasten some really tough bolts with a wrench. . . that is like having lots of torque.
Now if you have a really long screw (you know, the ones that you have to crank that ratchet a kazillion times), hp would be a measure of fast you could turn that screwdriver. Now what if you were in a race, where you had to see who could remove a screw the fastest. The stronger (torquier) guy would be able to get the screw loosened faster, and the speedier guy would be able to rotate faster (once the bolt is loosened). The best approach would be a balanced approach. You don't see olympic runners carrying guns in Iraq, nor do you see extreme heavy weight lifters. You see balanced men, whom are both strong and quick. . . what an engine should be as well.

In the real world of acceleration, a car is at rest. Only an opposing force (torque) can put the vehicle into a state of motion (accelerate). Now in order to accelerate quickly, you need power (torque). Both are crucial in fast acceleration times. You cannot move an object if you do not apply force, and you cannot accelerate if you do not power.

 

HP means Horsepower? I thought it was Hamsterpower. My daughters hamster really puts out some torque running in her wheel. Of course this is always at night when we are trying to sleep.

 

Actually, the low horsepower, high torque engine would work well with a one-speed transmission - something like a snow-blower or industrial water pump would do just fine with that.

And the high horsepower, low torque engine would do just fine if you hooked it up to a transmission that had about 20 speeds.

Horsepower is driveability, torque is how hard it pulls in each gear.

 

That's an excellent explanation, djct_watt. Thanks!

 

like a bicycle and were (man) is the high HP just as long as you have stan-a-ma too keep going and going and going and going

squeek squeek squeek squeek squeek squeek squeek squeek squeek

 

That's actually true. . . to an extent. Gears are nothing more than lever arms that rotate. Gears convert motion into force, and vice versa. Back to the wrench analogy!

Imagine that you are an average joy guy, trying to get a lug nut off, but the nut is stuck. What do you do? You get a breaker bar (the linear equivalent of a gear, meaning it does the same thing). By adding the leverage of length to the wrench, you actually move your hand more than you would without the breaker bar. This is where quick guys have an advantage. . . if you can move quickly, strength (or torque) is not as important, as the breaker bar provides the torque. If you were hyped on speed, you may get that lug nut off faster than the really buff guy with the short wrench.

Now with a gear, you can use a a larger gear (picture the big gear (rear gears) on a bicycle) to create more torque. By doing so, you will utilize hp (how quickly you spin your feet) to produce the torque. Thre really great thing about gears (unlike breaker bars) is that you can have both positive and negative ratios. You can have a gear like 1st gear or a gear like overdrive. So you could technically do the reverse process as well to create hp from high amounts of torque.

With enough gears, almost anything is possible, but it really stretches the example, and doesn't quite equate to the real world, as there are inefficiencies (loss of energy and momentum of accelerating/decelerating the engine, as well as increased rotational inertia of spinning gears).

This is purely the aspects from a physics point of view. When it comes to cars and racing, it's a whole other story. . . things like time lost during shifting, frequency of shifts, powerbands, traction, make the hp vs tq debate even more complicated. Application is key. . . you will rarely see a 1000hp Semi with 85lb/ft of torque, nor will you see a 60hp 800lb/ft speed boat or turboprop (for aircraft) engine. But I hope it is clear now, that the true definition (interpretations aside) of torque, is force (ie a good arm wrestler). Hp is a measure of how much work you do divided by the time it takes to do it (ie, bruce lee). Also keep in mind that either 0hp or 0lb/ft indicate that never move, and are a stationary object. Driveability depend soley and completely on what you are driving, and whether or not your engine meets your task.

 

but if the breaker bar doesn't work then you have to heat it up with a torch and use BP' laster/wd-40 and wait a few minutesor just tap it with a hammer for the oil to seep in

a heavy rock as torque in it when you throw it and it breaks some thing (like a window or a glass bottle) i think

 

Put some titanium needle bearings on it