horsepower and the power of a horse
Discussion
am i being daft, or are the two linked in some archaic measurement thingy?
how was the power of a horse measured? (and whose horse are we on about? high-mileage, well-serviced, big-bore exhaust(!) was it a fit one, or just glue-to-be?)
and is there any other reason besides laziness and inertia that we still use it.
how was the power of a horse measured? (and whose horse are we on about? high-mileage, well-serviced, big-bore exhaust(!) was it a fit one, or just glue-to-be?)
and is there any other reason besides laziness and inertia that we still use it.
i beleive the term originated from the tractor pulling competitions, wich started its days with horses pulling weights on sledge type things, then when they started using new fangled combustion engines they kept the term "horse power" as a measurement of power sot that everyone could relate to something they knew more about.
jmorgan said: Try this
That's a pretty good explaination. I remember reading somewhere that your average horse can only produce a sustained 0.25hp.
In the early years of motoring HP was calculated (for tax purposes) on some sort of bore and stroke calculation which favoured long stroke engines. This resulted engines which had fantastic bottom end torque, which indirectly led to the invention of the TVR...or something like that!
danhay said:
jmorgan said: Try this
That's a pretty good explaination. I remember reading somewhere that your average horse can only produce a sustained 0.25hp.
In the early years of motoring HP was calculated (for tax purposes) on some sort of bore and stroke calculation which favoured long stroke engines. This resulted engines which had fantastic bottom end torque, which indirectly led to the invention of the TVR...or something like that!
car tax used to be based on cylinder bore size... so guess what the maufacturers did...
Most comprehensive explinations of all thing hp and torque is at
www.pumaracing.co.uk/mainmenu.htm
along with a lot of other things.
J
www.pumaracing.co.uk/mainmenu.htm
along with a lot of other things.
J
This is in response to the idiot who said that the "average horse can only put out .25 horsepower". A MAN in decent shape can put out a continuous .25 hp (170 watts). Lance Armstrong can put out close to 450 watts continuous for hours. I put out over 1 kw running the quarter mile. James Watt's measurement was accurate in 1769; I hope that today's horses are stronger than that!
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