Torque is not how far you move the wall

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall, torque is how far you move the wall."

If you've ever tried to understand the difference between horsepower and torque, you've likely come across this silly expression: "Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall, torque is how far you take the wall with you." And while I created a video without the use of bad analogies to explain the difference between the power and torque, the comments were flooded with the inaccurate meme anyways.

Unfortunately horsepower and torque shouldn't be oversimplified to a short analogy, even if neither of them are all that difficult to understand individually. In this video we'll analyze the expression, and discuss exactly why it is inaccurate, what a more accurate analogy would be, and hopefully clear up additional misconceptions about power and torque through the use of dyno plots and a comparison between a diesel engine with lots of torque, versus a gasoline engine with not much power.

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