Dave Baker wrote:
Subject: Compressor Motor: HP v.s. Amps?
From: "Bob Swinney"
Date: 04/10/03 02:58 GMT Daylight Time
Message-id: vPpfb.489338$Oz4.334706@rwcrnsc54

"Richard J Kinch" wrote in message
. ..
Bob Swinney writes:

Torque is the capacity of an engine to do work ...

This, and many of your other comments here elided, are quite wrong.


So, Richard - we would like to hear your definition of torque. And
could you elucidate a bit on the many "elided" comments? Please,
give us your "take" on the correct facts.

Torque bears no relation to any capacity to do work. Although the two
quantities are expressed in the same units of force and distance,
torque is a vector quantity and work is scalar one. Torque merely
defines an instantaneous twisting force about an axis. It could be
expressed as a capacity to overcome a given load applied to that axis
but not to do a given amount of work. We need to also know speed to
calculate that and thus horsepower is what defines capacity to do
work.

Yes, you could have torque applied, but no work being done at all.