Units o' torque

[Michael R Taylor]

Torque, by definition is FORCE * DISTANCE

so, for English we have
	
		POUNDS * FEET

likewise for SI

		NEWTON * METERS

where NEWTONS = (KILOGRAMS * METERS) /( SECONDS^2)

	JOULES are equal to NEWTON * METERS



Now HORSEPOWER is basically TORQUES PER SECOND or TORQUE * ANGULAR
VELOCITY (radians per second)

The 550 ft-lbs / sec (wonderful conversion number) to one HORSEPOWER, as
I recall  as a kid from some science book, came from a horse using three
of its legs (the forth leg is always stepping forward, I guess) pulling
on a cable that, thru an arraignment of pullies, was connected to a 550
lb vertical load.  The horse pulled this load one foot per second, and
BADA BING BADA BOOM!  The hp was invented.

So here's the whole enchilada


ft-lb * RPM * ( 1 min / 60 sec) * (2 pi radians / 1 revolution) * (1 hp /
(550 ft-lb / sec))


	or 2 * pi / (60 * 550)   = 1 / 5252


Try that on for size.....

See ya,

Mike