Sorry its beyond your comprehension.

 

Haha that's the equivalent of saying "I know you are but what am I!"

Enlighten me, brother!

 

Its simple physics imo - Work = Force * distance. 2,000 rpms in 1st gear = 2,000 rpms in 2nd gear.

The drive gear ratio is the only thing that changed, and that is outside the engine. Thus the wheels move at a higher rate because of the drive gears not the engine - the same amount of work thus propels the car faster, but the engine isn't working harder.

When you have someone jump on your back, you're changing the weight of the person in the example, but the car doesn't get heavier just because you shifted into 2nd. You're thinking of variables that include gravity and friction. They do come into play, but that does make the argument less clear, so to keep things simple, think low speeds, no elevation changes.

 

Keep going this is getting better

So to keep things clear lets remove real factors and pretend we're in a vacuum on mars and burt reynolds is driving

 

work = force x distance

at higher gear, there's more air resistance. ergo more force (remember a = 0), hence more work.

 

It provides the answer.

 

The answer to which question? Where does it as what power is made

 

[QUOTE=S2020,Sep 4 2007, 08:07 PM] work = force x distance

at higher gear, there's more air resistance.

 

hmmm quite interesting

 

It takes more power to get to 4k rpms at a higher speed because you have to factor in friction and are constantly accelerating, but lets say you get to 4k rpms in 4th gear, then let off the gas (stop accelerating). For the time the engine is at 4k rpms and is constant, the engine isn't working any harder then when you did the same thing in 1st gear.

Sure, the car will slow down when you start to coast at 4k rpm in any gear, but thats because of friction, and you have to overcome higher friction the faster you go, but that's working harder to acheive the rpm because you are accelerating against friction, the engine isn't working harder once you stop accelerating.

Imagine you are driving down hill, where the slope of the hill allows gravity to negate friction. In this case, when you coast at 4k rpm, the pull of gravity negates the pull of friction. The hill will need to be steeper at 4th gear, 4k rpm than at 2nd gear, 4k rpm, because gravity needs to negate more friction, but these are all external factors to the engine. Going down these hills, and engine is not working any harder at 4k rpm in either gear, and it does not have to accelerate to get to a speed where 4k rpm reside.