My new thing is to explain something in tedious detail when the board's slow.
Who wants an explanation of the relationship between horsepower and torque?

Alternatively, I will take requests.
( Kroney, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:25, 3 replies, latest was 14 years ago)

*puts hand up*

( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:25, Reply)

Very well.
Horsepower is a measure of how powerful your car is in a straight line. It's very rarely applicable to how your car actually works, though. Torque is far more important.

Torque is measured in Newton-Metres in Metric, or Foot-Pounds in Imperial. It measures rotational force. When your camshaft, propshaft or wheels are spinning, it is torque, not horsepower, which is driving them. Torque is applied power, whilst horsepower is a measure of raw power. When your car is travelling in a straight line, you measure its power in horsepowers, but the engine and the wheels are rotating and are therefore measured in foot-pounds.

To take a lame petrolhead analogy, when crashing into a wall, horsepower defines how hard you hit it, whilst torque defines how far you take it with you.
( Kroney, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:32, Reply)

Nope.
Not with you at all.
(Set your faces to Stunned Bigly, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:33, Reply)

Torque is applied engine power under load.
Like, for example, pulling a trailer up a hill. The ability of the engine to keep turning the wheels under load is torque. The more torque an engine has, the heavier the trailer and the steeper the hill it will be able to negotiate.

Horsepower simply defines how fast an engine can accelerate under normal conditions. A small amount of torque will be needed to move it off from standstill and more will be required for a hill start, but once you're moving, any load effectively dissipates almost completely and it is just the engines ability to produce raw power which is important.
( Kroney, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:45, Reply)

I thought power was to do with how the torque is delivered over time
ie Torque is the measurement of potential, power is the speed with which it can be delivered...or something
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:44, Reply)

It is. One horsepower is equivalent to something like 33,000 foot-pounds per minute.
Torque is a component of horsepower, but torque is also used on its own. The two things are generally used in car vernacular as two separate components that do two separate jobs.
( Kroney, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:51, Reply)

If you imagine a handcrank consisting of a straight pole with a handle on one end.
The force turning the crank is torque, but how fast the other end of the pole is spinning is measured in horsepower.
( Kroney, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:57, Reply)

Can you explain why bad things happen to good people?

( girlinthehole, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:26, Reply)

Because good people are pushovers.

( Kroney, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:34, Reply)

: (

( girlinthehole, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:35, Reply)

The truest thing that has ever been said.
You need to find a balance between being an ace person whilst also having a ruthless streak. I think I do it reasonably well but only because I'm more ruthless/a cunt than I am ace.
(Barry from Eastenders is, despite the words written above, not a woman, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:36, Reply)

Yeah', like for example, I've just realised I've had my foot resting on my knee for the last 3 hours and I can't feel it anymore but I really need to do a pee. but if I stand up I'll fall over.

( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:44, Reply)

Stop being such a doormat, weakling.

( Kroney, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:46, Reply)

i prefer
ballroom dancing
( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:26, Reply)

*eats croissant*

(Darth Foxtrot A one-man army dedicated to making fetch happen, Mon 22 Aug 2011, 14:28, Reply)