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When a horse wins the triple crown of horse racing

That horse should now be the baseline for horsepower and all cars in America should have to update their horsepower in reference to that horse
The original definition of horsepower, the one that got used for cars etc, involved connecting a horse to a rope and pulleys to raise a weight. Turns out that's a lousy way to measure a horse's energy output. Under different circumstances, a horse can output about 15 mechanical horsepower!

If you prefer, 1 hp = 746 watts, so you can convert your car's max output to kilowatts. 1 Watt = 1 Joule per second if that's your preferred unit of rate of energy expenditure.
JRVanguard · 26-30, M
@ElwoodBlues I’m not smart enough to figure it out but let’s see what 1 Justify horsepower rate it😌
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@ElwoodBlues How about the [i][b]kp[/b][/i], then?

I saw it used only in French and German car manufacturers' literature, and gained from somewhere it was the abbreviation for [i]kilopoule[/i].

Now, [i]poule [/i]is French for [i]hen[/i], and whilst one might compare a vehicle's effort to that of rather a lot of draught-horses, the idea of comparing it to an enormous flock of poultry seemed a bit strange! Even by the standards of French car designers, traditionally averse to making the simple in principle, simple in practice.

It is of course, really the [i]kilopond[/i], combined with the [i]metre[/i] to form the [i]kp/m [/i]unit of force. Though metric it is obsolete, but why car manufacturers were using well after the development of the SI units adopted by everyone else in science and engineering, is another question!

The same manufacturers who also persist in enumerating the load volume of their cars by the liquid measure, the litre, rather than the dry unit, the cubic metre; or more even usefully, by its linear dimensions (L x B x H metres).

Still, it is rather delightful to think of the Citroen 2CV or the Volkswagen "Beetle" rated by comparison to several tens of Shire horses or thousands of harnessed hens... or used as an aquarium of[i] x[/i] litres capacity!

'
[i]Historical note[/i]:

The Horsepower was coined by James Watt, credited with greatly [i]improving [/i]([i]not[/i] inventing) the steam-engine, and to answer the growing need of factory owners and the manufacturers of their equipment to know machinery powers and efficiencies.

It was set as a mean estimate of literally equine effort of a draught-horse because previously, horses, water and to a lesser extent wind, were the only useful sources of power.

The standard unit of power (rate of conversion of energy w.r.t time) now used, the [i]Watt[/i], is named after James Watt; but was not developed in his time. 1W = 1 Joule / second.

At 1HP = 748W, the conversion is close enough for rounding to 750W, to simplify practical conversions probably more accurate than the advertised specifications anyway; and sometimes bringing it within mental-arithmetic range.

So we should let the horses and hens forage in peace, and properly rate our vehicle's drive unit in kW, whether it is an i.c. engine or an electric motor. Or steam engine!
They sabotaged the last horse that coulda won it imo
JRVanguard · 26-30, M
@SStarfish It was General Motors not wanting to reduce their horsepower values😤
Iwillwait · M
@SStarfish How so?
SW-User
i'll sign that petition
JRVanguard · 26-30, M
@SW-User Aww yeah
We’re gonna lower horsepowers across the nation😌
JohnOinger · 41-45, M
@JRVanguard Can you flirt with Just Amber for me so I can watch
JohnOinger · 41-45, M
@JRVanguard Name celebrities that I will meet inperson

 
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