Everyone is familiar with the Carnot cycle for both heat engines and heat pumps. In an effort to simplyfy developing working systems based on the Stirling engine/pump, I developed the concept of thermal torque. Paralleling the simple concept of a mechanical lever, one can more quickly determine thermal properties needed to achieve certain goals. The diagram below illustrates the concept. The formulas in the diagram are all constants of any given system for ideal carnot engines/pumps. The lever is drawn as a simple mechanical lever but in reality will be a more complicated system. It may be comprised of a Stirling engine connected to a Stirling heat pump