why does peak power and torque not occur at the same rpm of an internal combustion engine?

Question

Let’s refer to an 4 stroke internal combustion engine in this case.

In: 4

Answer 1

Power is torque multiplied by RPM. An engine with half of the torque but double the RPM will produce the same power.

In general, as the RPM goes above the highest torque point, the power will continue to increase for a little bit as the increased RPM makes up for the lost torque. Then, the torque drops more and the increased RPM can no longer make up for that, so power drops eventually at high enough RPM.