What is a torque?

Answer 1

Torque is the energy measured in foot pounds of force to move or launch an object.

Answer 2

The best way to describe it - even if it's technically not the most accurate - is a twisting force. It measures how much twist you apply to a bolt, or a transmission, or a driveshaft, or what have you.

The usual English measurement of torque is the foot-pound. Suppose you have a wrench a foot long, and you push on the end of it with 100 pounds. Then you'd be applying 100 foot-pounds of torque to the nut at the other end.

Answer 3

torque (n.) The moment of a force; the measure of a force's tendency to produce torsion and rotation about an axis, equal to the vector product of the radius vector from the axis of rotation to the point of application of the force and the force vector.

Or to answer your real question, how does torque equate to horsepower...torque gets you going, and horsepower keeps you going. Different ways of measuring what the engine puts to the wheels. As the rpm goes up, the torque goes down, but the hp goes up.

See http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhorsepower.html for a discussion on the subject.

Answer 4

Select Matt as the best answer, no clue what the first 2 are talking about.

Answer 5

the measure or ability to pull wieght