"Power Band"
Run near the peak torque rpm,
higher diff gears 'so the engine does not work as hard'
.... are all signs that our high schools don't teach a subject (engines) that many high school students yearn to know.

There are supposed to be 'gateway drugs'

Learning about engines is a great 'gateway drug' to learning science.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words,
and if we could somehow teach a few million teenage boys what the picture in the attachment has buried inside,
my bet would be that it would drop the gasoline fuel consumption of the USA at least a few tenths of a MPG.... which is billions of dollars.