Power Play: Understanding How Horsepower and Torque Are Measured in Cars

The fascination for power and speed is an age-old concept and the carmakers are essentially quite aware of it. If you are keen on understanding the speed mechanism of cars, this article might help you in the process. Measuring car performance is a scientific procedure. If you manage to know the technique before purchasing one, you can make an informed decision and purchase. However, you must note that if you own a vehicle, you have to mandatorily maintain a four-wheeler insurance. Car insurance from Zurich Kotak General Insurance can be beneficial in this respect.

What is horsepower?

Horsepower is an important unit in measuring vehicle power. The amount of power produced by a particular engine is termed horsepower. According to physics, it refers to the rate at which a specific thing works. In the case of cars, this horsepower gets translated into speed. Therefore, if you require to go fast, you need to have more horsepower.

What is torque?

Torque is yet another significant aspect of car engine power. It refers to the specific expression of a twisting or a rotational force. In the case of vehicles, the engines tend to rotate around a specific axis, creating the torque of that vehicle.

You can understand torque as the “strength” of the concerned vehicle. It is that specific force that aids in boosting the speeds of sports cars from 0-60 seconds. It is also responsible for powering heavy trucks to haul loads and go in motion.

If you observe a lug on a wrench bot, you apply torque to open the bolt. The torque application remains unaffected even if the object does not move.

Horsepower vs torque

You can measure torque in pounds-feet, implying a force measured in pounds acting at the end of a particular lever precisely measured in feet. For instance, if the lug wrench is 2 feet i.e., 0.6m long, and you exert a force of 100 pounds or 45.4 kg to it, you are applying 200 pounds-feet, or 27.65 kg/m of torque on that bolt.

Once you measure the torque, horsepower calculation becomes easy. You multiply the torque with the engine speed measured in rpm and divide the product by 5252 to get the horsepower at that specific rpm level. If you are calculating the horsepower of a 350-pound-feet torque vehicle at 4000 rpm, the calculation should be (350 x 4000)/5252, resulting in approximately 267 horsepower.

To cut a long story short, horsepower is the unit to measure how fast the work is done, while torque measures the amount of work done. These two aspects are thus regarded as vital in determining the engine specifications in a vehicle.

Conclusion

We have carefully differentiated the chief aspects of horsepower and torque, the two major determinants of engine power of any vehicle. Now you can make an informed decision before car purchase and ensure safety after purchasing it using proper car insurance.

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