What is the torque?

Sometimes a lot of questions arise about what torque is? This question is quite important, so it is worthwhile to understand it.

It is possible to give a definition from the course of physics, which all pass in school: the torque is equal to the product of force on the shoulder of its action. To understand in more detail how the car engine is designed, we can recall the primitive principle of the locomotive operation. Under the action of steam, the piston pushes the connecting rod, that is, a long stick. The connecting rod turns the wheel, creating the very moment on it. This moment together with the traction force of the wheel with the rails causes the appearance of traction force, allowing the train to move forward. In this case, the translational movements on the piston side cause the rotation inside the motor. And the output is already obtained rotational motion of the crankshaft, transmitted to the wheel by transmission.

So, if with the fact that such a torque is more or less clear, then it is worthwhile to understand how this is related to turnover. Usually in the description of the car next to the field power or torque is indicated by the revolutions. Here the whole point is that the maximum power with the maximum torque can be achieved only at certain engine speeds. At other turns, a significantly lower speed is observed. Modern cars are different in that they have a peak power of somewhere at five thousand revolutions per minute, however, with such speed, no one drives, the normal mode is at the level of two to three thousand rpm, while only 50% 70% of the capacity indicated in the passport. These forces will be sufficient for a calm and measured ride.

However, many people wonder what a torque is when they go to overtaking, and they need the whole herd of horses, which is available under the hood. And then it turns out that the engine must be untwisted up to five thousand revolutions, when all power is available. That's why it's important to know exactly at what speed the peak torque can be reached. It is worth saying that for conventional gasoline engines in this case, you can face a problem. Here power and torque can be achieved at very high revs. This problem is solved by installing a turbine, which often causes other difficulties in return for this. At diesel engines the situation is a bit different, here the peak of the moment is achievable already at two thousand revolutions. The situation with electric motors is quite different. There is absolutely the opposite dependence. The lower the speed, the higher the torque of the electric motor. The characteristics of hybrids in this sense are very successful. At such cars the electric motor functions at low speeds, and the gasoline is connected as far as the acceleration. Thanks to this design it is possible to obtain a consistently high torque throughout the entire rotation range.

Now, with the question of what torque is, everything is clear, it remains to decide what is more important or power? And here there is a well-known saying: power sells cars, and the torque allows you to win the race. This is not so, because the two concepts are closely related:

Power = torque * revolutions.

With increasing torque, the power increases, if there is enough power, then, most likely, there is enough torque. And here it is important to provide the maximum moment on the widest range of revolutions. Now the engineers of automakers are working in this direction. When choosing a car it is very important to pay attention to such quantities as torque, power and speed. The higher the first and second, and the lower the third, the better for the buyer.

Now that you know what torque is and how it is interconnected with the rest of the indicators, you can easily decide which car is more suitable for purchase.