NEVER be confused by HORSEPOWER and TORQUE again - HP and TORQUE EXPLAINED in the MOST VISUAL WAY

In today's video, I'll use Legos to give you the

most

visual

explanation and demonstration of

horsepower

and

torque

. If you've ever been

confused

by the difference between

horsepower

and

torque

, I guarantee that after watching this video, these two concepts will

never

confuse you

again

. So let's get started and start with torque. Now, this big Lego motor generates 0.14 N⋅m of torque. And the smallest Lego motor generates 0.03 N⋅m of torque. What is a Newton meter? Well, a Newton meter is a measurement of torque. It measures how much torque is being generated. And what is torque? Well, the simplest explanation of torque is that it is a rotational force.

It is the rotational equivalent of a linear force. When you take this bolt and push it, you are applying linear force to it. But when you decide to screw it in, you're applying torque to it. In both cases, there is a certain amount of force. But what is different is the direction of that force. So, our Lego motors generate a certain amount of torque that we have expressed in Newton meters. 1 Newton meter of torque is simply equivalent to the force of 1 Newton, applied to the end of an arm 1 meter long. So for example, if we take this bolt and use this wrench, which is 1 meter long.

And apply a force of 1 Newton to the end of that wrench, the resulting torque present on the bolt will be one Newton meter. Did Newton meters confuse you? No problem. Because torque can also be easily expressed in foot-pounds. 1 foot-pound of torque is equal to 1 pound of force applied to the end of an arm that is 1 foot long. So in this scenario, I am using the energy stored in my muscles to generate torque in the bolt. Our LEGO motors are doing the same thing. They are using the electrical energy stored in these batteries to generate torque or rotational force.

And as we've seen, our large Lego motor generates more torque than our small motor. This torque difference can be easily felt. If we install a small shaft in our motor, we can feel the difference in the rotational force coming from these motors. The difference in torque output is very obvious. And the big motor feels much stronger and is very difficult to stop. You can also see the torque difference. If we install a heavy accessory on our motors, we can see that the large OEGO motor has enough torque to overcome the weight of this heavy accessory and can move it.

However, the smaller motor does not generate enough torque to overcome the weight of this heavy accessory and therefore cannot move it. The convenient thing here is that these Lego engines can easily be compared to the internal combustion engines of gasoline or diesel vehicles. And even more so to the electric motors of battery electric vehicles. Just like our Lego motors, modern electric car motors use the energy stored in their battery packs to generate torque. On the other hand, internal combustion engines rely on energy stored in fossil fuels to generate torque. But despite their different power sources, they all generate torque at the end of a shaft.

Both the shaft torque output of an electric motor and the crankshaft torque output of an internal combustion engine are connected to a lot of different things. But ultimately its purpose is to power the wheels of a vehicle. Now let's move on to horsepower. We already know the output torque of our two motors. Now, let's also add the power output. And here we have the power of our two LEGO motors. Do you notice anything peculiar here? The large motor has more than four times the torque of the small motor. But it barely has twice the horsepower. How is this possible?

Well, to understand how this happens we have to understand what horsepower is. The key word in the word horsepower is power. What is power? Power is the speed at which work is done. In simpler terms, power measures how often a given force is applied over a given period of time. One can even call power "activity." Measure how many times you can repeat the same action during a given period of time. This means that power introduces time into the equation. When we talk about torque, time is not a factor. We simply measure how much rotational force is generated.

And that is our torque. That's all. But horsepower measures how much force is generated over a period of time. This means that the pair is influenced by a single factor. The amount of rotational force. But power is influenced by two factors. The amount of force. And how many times that force can be exerted, during a given period of time. Now we are going to attach these two blocks to the shafts of our Lego motors. So we can more easily observe how fast each one of them spins. As you can see, the small motor spins noticeably faster than the large motor.

In fact, in a period of one minute, the smaller motor makes 275 complete rotations, while the large motor makes only 146 rotations. This means that although it cannot generate as much torque as the large motor, the small motor applies its torque at a higher speed, for the same period of time. In other words, it generates its rotational force more frequently. It is more active than the big engine. And because horsepower is influenced by both the amount of force and the speed at which that force is applied, the small engine can generate half the horsepower of the large engine, with only a quarter of the torque.

This also means that while torque can be felt and observed, horsepower cannot be felt in the same sense. It can only be observed. If we put our fingers

again

st the shaft, we feel the torque. We are feeling the force against our fingers. When we are sitting inside a car and the car accelerates, we again feel the force pushing us against the seat. We can only feel the amount of force. And since torque is just a force, we can feel it. But horsepower isn't just a force. It is a measure of the rate of force. In the case of engines and motors, horsepower is basically torque x RPM.

Which means we can't feel it the same way we can feel torque. Another thing that is interesting is that our small and large engines are quite analogous to the engine of a truck and a sports car. Truck engines are usually physically very large. A truck like this usually has an engine with a displacement of about 13 liters. And with an engine this size you can expect about 450 horsepower. And around 2,950 N.m of torque. It really puts our Lego motors into perspective, doesn't it? On the other hand, a sports car engine will be dramatically smaller, but will be able to match or even surpass a truck engine in terms of horsepower.

Although it won't even come close when it comes to torque. In fact, these are the specifications of a real truck and a real sports car. The sports car can surpass the truck in terms of power. Only because the truck has a very low maximum RPM. The truck's engine cannot rotate more than 2500 RPM. On the contrary, the engine of a sports car can reach up to 7,000 revolutions per minute. But a sports car's engine can't come close in terms of torque. One of the key reasons behind this is physical size. Often, a motor's torque output will correlate to its physical size.

This is also true for humans, for example. A bigger human will have bigger muscles. And often he will be able to generate greater forces than a smaller human. Similarly, a larger engine will have larger pistons and larger chambers, meaning you can fill more air and fuel into space. And it can generate more powerful combustion, resulting in greater force applied to the crankshaft. And, therefore, a greater delivery of torque to the crankshaft. A truck engine needs enormous torque production, because it needs enormous force to be able to move a much greater amount of weight than the car engine must move.

On the other hand, a sports car engine generates its torque at a much higher rate. Therefore it generates more horsepower. And there you have it. I hope this finally clears up any uncertainty you may have regarding horsepower and torque. As always, thank you very much for watching. And I'll see you with more fun and useful things. On channel D4A.