• Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    10 months ago

    it directly measures their ability to get up to speed

    No, it doesn’t. power measures how fast the vehicle will get up to speed, torque is meaningless unless you know the RPM that torque is being made at.

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      25
      ·
      10 months ago

      Most legitimate torque ratings include at what rpm. Many articles do not include all the details.

      • Bilb!@lem.monster
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        34
        ·
        10 months ago

        You’re both completely wrong. The only important measurement of a vehicle is spirit

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        10 months ago

        Also wrong. If you compare two otherwise identical vehicles, the one with more power will both accelerate faster and have a higher top speed, assuming it has the gearing to use that power.

        Stop getting all your vehicle knowledge from old top gear episodes.

      • QuinceDaPence@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        To accelerate a vehicle we need to put kinetic energy into it and Power is the measure of how fast we can do that.

        From a technical capability standpoint, torque is a useless measure. With a motor of a given power you can always gear it up or down to whatever torque you need (assuming a lossless transmission system).

        If we take two identical trucks with 10k lb trailers on them and one’s a 800ft-lb diesel and one’s a 300ft-lb gas, both with 400hp, they sould realisticly accelerate and climb a hill at the same rate. The diference is the gas engine will be screaming at 6/7/8000 rpm and guzzling gas. (This also assumes no other factors like heat cone into play, the gas may not be able to maintain as much power due to cooling system designs or other factors).

        Torquey-er engines also tend to feel better from a driveability standpoint but that’s not representative of capability.

        • Pelicanen@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          What? Torque tells you what force can be applied at what distance from the center of rotation. Acceleration is a function of mass and force. Of course more torque is going to get you to accelerate faster.

          • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            8
            ·
            10 months ago

            Remember, power is torque times RPM, which is your accelerating force. It’s a functionally useless measurement without RPM.

            An engine with half the torque revving twice as fast will make an equal amount of power, and accelerate equally fast.