Horsepower and Torque. Options

[DerekKim]

So I was talking to a friend this morning... 2am... I realize that I understand roughly in my head what torque and horsepower do... but was exactly does each one do... in Laman's terms.

Any help would be appreciated! Just trying to learn somethign and expand my knowledge to a better understanding.

[abbott295]

Good morning. I'm sure someone can post a diagram to help illustrate this. But basically torque is a twisting force, horsepower is a measure of the ability to do work, which is moving a force (weight) through a distance in a certain time.

Horsepower ( the term and the definition) was invented by Isaac Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, to be able to sell engines by showing that they could do the work of x number of horses, which was the principal motive force at the time. He actually measured how much work horses could do, pulling weights for a distance and how fast. He came up with a figure of 22,000 feet-pounds per minute or maybe it's pound-feet per minute. For example: 220 pounds moved 100 feet in one minute. To sell his steam engines, knowing that someone, somewhere would actually go out and find the biggest, strongest horse they could to make a liar out of him if they could, he used 33,000 foot-pounds per minute as his "horsepower" upping the power output 50% over what his measurements showed a horse was really capable of so no single horse would have a chance of beating a steam engine that he rated at 1 horsepower.

Torque, as with a torque wrench, is a twisting force. 50 pounds of force applied at the end of a one foot handle is 50 foot-pounds, at the end of a two foot handle is 100 foot pounds.

The diagram is called for to illustrate the device for measuring horsepower when your force is rotary, as from the end of the crankshaft. I think it is called a "Prony brake" Okay, wikipedia has it as "de Prony brake" with diagram.

Hope that helps.