system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:If two engines have the same horsepower but one has 20% more torque what is the practical difference?

20% is just a random number. I just mean, if you have two engines of the same family and one is smaller but turbocharged and theyre both rated at the same horsepower but different amounts of torque.

Thank you.


Edit: I appreciate the responses but what I'm really asking here is what the difference between the two vehicles would be. Say we have two totally normal cars with 140 horsepower, one of the cars has 140 ft·lb of torque and the other has 165. How do these two vehicles differ in performance?
gpt
Torque = force (measured in newton meters[dimensionally equivalent to joules])

Horsepower = energy (measured in joules per second[watts])

**Horsepower tells you how much work your engine can do *over a time period*, torque tells you how much work your engine can do at *any given instant*.** That is why torque is much more important at a standstill, where wheels are static one instant but moving the next.

They are inherently related as Horsepower = Torque * Angular Speed. You can't increase torque or HP without increasing the other (while keeping RPMs constant).

Fun Fact: Trains use electric motors to get their wheels turning from a standstill because they can produce more torque than combustion engines.