the silverback wrote:
I am sorry but I must say that motorhomes still must obey the Laws of Physics. They say that if you double the weight of something and everthing else remains the same it will accerate half as fast. Or if you double the power of something and everthing else remains the same it will accerate twice as fast. I hope by now we can agree with the Physics books that Torque IS NOT power. It is a componet of Horsepower, which is power. If the machine is a motorcycle, a car. a motorhome or a tank the LAWS of Physycs apply. Case in point. I have gas MH with 340 horsepower engine. A buddy of mine has a diesel MH with a 350 horsepower engine. Of his engine has a lot more Torque mine. However I can beat him up a mountain grade or enterance ramp any day of the week. This is because his MH weights 9,000 pounds more than mine!!! It is weight per horsepower NOT torque that allows me to do this. Physics and the real world do agree.
With reference to your statement, "Torque is not power"...:
Torque is not power if the torque does not turn the shaft or the wheel. But, when it turns the shaft or wheel, power is produced and work can be done. There's examples of torque being manufactured by manpower, or water power, or oxen power, or mule, etc,....whereby a whole lot of power and work was accomplished.
I believe it was the invention of the steam engine, and the impending commercial use thereof, that created the incentive to invent a method whereby this production of power could be quantified. Thus, the invention of the horsepower formula. I believe it was also in this era that Gaspard de Prony invented the Prony Brake, which was a dynamometer used to measure the TORQUE output of early steam engines. This helped with the evolution of "the horsepower formula".
My point is that this formula was not the invention of power(power existed already). And, my other point is that there was a whole lot of power, and work, that was accomplished way before the term "horse power" was associated with engines.
The "book definition" of torque is used for specific purposes, but you can see why some of us believe that certain torque applications can be considered power(when the shaft and/or wheel keeps turning).
And, all of it might be considered "the word game".
My other point is that a physics professor would probably have a harder time than a truck driver selecting between a new gasoline motorhome and a new diesel motorhome. THAT'S how little "physics" has to do with making this selection.
And, yes I passed physics, and statics, and dynamics, and calculus(had trouble with laplace transformation), etc.
SO, let's talk about "the real real world". If you don't know how to select between gasoline or diesel, are you kidding me? If you're not, how do you learn?
