How to Increase Torque with Gears: • NEVER Get Confused by the R... In today’s video I’ll be using Legos to give you the MOST visual explanation and demonstration of horsepower and torque. If you’ve ever been confused by the difference between horsepower and torque, I guarantee that by the time you’re done with this video, you’ll never be confused by these two concepts again. So let’s get started, and we’ll start with torque. This big Lego motor puts out 0.14 Newtons/Meter of torque. And the little Lego motor puts out 0.03 Newtons/Meter of torque. What is a Newton Meter? Well, Newton Meters are a measurement of torque. They measure HOW MUCH torque is being generated. So what is torque? Well, the simplest definition of what torque is is that it’s a ROTATIONAL FORCE. It’s the rotational equivalent of a LINEAR FORCE. When you have a screw, and you push on it… you’re applying a linear force to it. But when you decide to screw it in… you’re applying TORQUE to it. In both cases there is some amount of force present. But the difference is in the direction of that force. So our Lego motors have a certain torque output which we have expressed in newton meters. 1 newton meter of torque is simply ONE NEWTON of force applied to the end of a bar that is 1 meter long. So for example, if we have this screw, and we use this ratchet, which is 1 meter long…. and we apply 1 Newton of force to the end of the ratchet, the resulting torque present on the screw will be 1 Newton meter. Confused by newton meters? No problem, because torque can easily be expressed in foot-pounds as well. One foot-pound of torque is ONE POUND of force applied to the end of a bar that is 1 foot long. So in this case, I am using the stored energy of my MUSCLES to generate torque on the screw. Our Lego motors are doing the same thing. They are using their electrical energy stored in their batteries to generate torque or rotational force. And as we have seen, our big Lego motor generates MORE TORQUE than our small motor. This difference in torque can be easily felt. If we install an axle on our motor, we can feel the difference in rotational force coming out of these motors. The difference in torque between the two motors is very obvious, as the bigger motor feels much stronger and as a result, it is very difficult to stop it. Just like our Lego motors, modern electric car motors use the energy stored in their batteries to generate torque. On the other hand, internal combustion engines rely on the energy stored in fossil fuel to generate torque. Well, we need to understand WHAT ARE HORSES. So, when horses run, what do they have? Power, speed, right? We will focus on power. What is power? Power is the SPEED at which work is done. In simpler terms, horsepower measures HOW OFTEN a certain force is being exerted in a given period of time. This means that torque is only affected by one factor: The amount of rotational force. But horsepower is influenced by two factors: The amount of force… and how many times this force can be exerted in a given period of time. Now let’s install these blocks on the axles of our Lego motors so we can easily observe how fast each of them is spinning. As you can see, the small motor is spinning at a higher speed than the large motor. In fact, in a period of 1 minute, the small motor makes 275 complete turns, while the large motor only makes 146 turns. This means that, although it can’t generate the same torque as the large motor, the small motor is applying its torque at a HIGHER RATE, over the same period of time. In other words, it is generating its rotational force more frequently. If we put our fingers on the axle, we are feeling the torque. We are feeling the FORCE… by fighting with our fingers. When we're in a car, and it accelerates, we're feeling the force pushing us back into our seats. We can only FEEL the amount of force, and because torque is just a force, we can feel it. But horsepower is NOT JUST a force, it's a MEASUREMENT of the frequency of a force. In the case of engines, horsepower is basically Torque, multiplied by RPM.