well,
I really dont like people who copy and paste things which they don't even understand! It shows how shallow they are! workdone: work is done when a force moves in a perpendicular distance, energy is the ability of doing work, there are so many kinds of energies; mechanical, electrical, etc! Torque is a measure of how much a force acting on an object causes that object to rotate/turn!
[FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif]In physics, torque can be thought of informally as 'rotational force'. Torque is often listed as part of the basic specifications of an engine. The power output of an engine is expressed as torque multiplied by rotational speed.
Internal-combustion engines generally produce useful torque over a limited range of rotational speeds, usually from around 1,000 - 6,000 rpm for a standard car.
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif]Understanding the relationship between torque, power and engine speed is vital in automotive engineering, concerned as it is with transmitting power from the engine through the drive train to the wheels. The gearing of the drive train (transmission) must be chosen appropriately to make the most of the motor's torque characteristics.
Listen guys, torque is NOT momentum!! Momentum is a product of 'mass' and its 'velocity', but torque can be affected highly by the rate of change of momentum! (especially when talking about angular bodies)
[/FONT]Torque has dimensions of force times distance. Official SI literature suggests using the unit Newton meter (N m) or Joule per radian.The unit newton meter is properly denoted "N m" or "N·m", but not other combinations(this avoids ambiguityfor example, mN is the symbol for millinewtons, nm is the symbol for nanometers, etc.)
The Joule, which is the SI unit for energy or work, is dimensionally equivalent to a N m, but this unit is not used for torque.
Energy and torque are entirely different concepts, so the practice of using different unit names for them helps avoid mistakes and misunderstandings.
The dimensional equivalence of these units, of course, is not simply a coincidence: a torque of 1 N m applied through a full revolution will require an energy of exactly 2π joules. So, don't mix these term; Torque, workdone and energy.
Guys, when you want to buy a car; will you ask for the weight of the car? NO! Why Not?? Horsepower and torque are often considered when shopping for a vehicle!!
If you carry a backet full of water (it has weight) and move at a certain distance will you say that work has been done? Hell No! Your weight didnt do work. it didnt move. Its you who moved! So, a car cant move at its own. Yes a car has weight but on its own cant do 'work', torque is needed to bring the change of momentum of the car? Where is the torque come from? Ofcourse is from the engine!
If you have a one pound weight bolted to the floor, and try to lift it with one pound of force (or 10, or 50 pounds), you will have applied force and exerted energy, but no work will have been done. If you unbolt the weight, and apply a force sufficient to lift the weight one foot, then one foot pound of work will have been done. If that event takes a minute to accomplish, then you will be doing work at the rate of one foot pound per minute. If it takes one second to accomplish the task, then work will be done at the rate of 60 foot pounds per minute, and so on.
In order to apply these measurements to automobiles and their performance (whether you're speaking of torque, horsepower, newton meters, watts, or any other terms), you need to address the three variables of force, work and time.
When driving a car, what do you feel? A weight of the car or torque? Damn! Obvious its 'torque' Any given car, in any given gear, will accelerate at a rate that *exactly* matches its torque curve. Another way of saying this is that a car will accelerate hardest at its torque peak in any given gear, and will not accelerate as hard below that peak, or above it.
Torque is the only thing that a driver feels, and horsepower is just sort of an esoteric measurement in that context. 300 foot pounds of torque will accelerate you just as hard at 2000 rpm as it would if you were making that torque at 4000 rpm in the same gear, yet, per the formula, the horsepower would be *double* at 4000 rpm. Therefore, horsepower isn't particularly meaningful from a driver's perspective, and the two numbers only get friendly at 5252 rpm, where horsepower and torque always come out the same.
I hope this will help!