What is torque?

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I have had my SRM since july, and have enjoyed watching and using the numbers it gives me both on the bike and on the computer.

Just recently I to a look at the torquegraph in CP. When I compare torque and power they seem to follow each other most of the time, but not all the time.
What is torque? Why is there a difference? Is the difference good or bad?
As you can tell I am almost a newbie.

If you know what force is and velocity, then torque and rpm are the rotational equivalents of these.

Torque is rotational force around an axis. Defined as force times the distance to the axis. Power is defined as force times velocity or in rotational space as torque times rpm.

Depending on wether it's measured on the rear wheel or on the crank, they will follow each other pretty closely as you probably pedal at about the same cadence most of the time. If you measure torque on the rear wheel it makes sence again, since when you go uphill, you need more torque and thus you shift to a lower gear, and you'll get less rpms (on the wheel) but more torque to overcome gravity.

Did I make it understandable?

Snip

Did I make it understandable?Yes I guess so. I took a look at my graphs again including torque, power and cadence. When the cadence goes down lower than average for the ride, the torque goes up and vice versa.

I think I understand now: At the same power a low cadence gives a high torque and vice versa.

Thank you