eli5: what is actually happening when a manual vehicle stalls?
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Your car’s engine is only so strong. There is some point where, if the force required to turn your car’s wheels is too much, the engine will simply stop spinning. It just can’t do it.
“Stalling” is the fancy term they use for any situation where a running engine unexpectedly stops. Putting too much load on it is just one way to do that.
You can potentially put too much load on your car’s engine if you try to make it accelerate too quickly in too high of a gear. Gearshifts in cars are tradeoffs between *oomf* and *speed*. If you are in a situation where you need *oomf*, such as climbing a hill, pulling a trailer, or getting up to speed, but you’re in the *speed* gear, you may overwhelm the engine and cause it to stall.
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