01/04/2020
"Horsepower, What Is It?"
Yet another automotive mainstay and commonality we have all encountered but maybe never researched. Your vehicle's engine's power is measured in horsepower. But what is horsepower, exactly, and why is it called so? It all goes back to the days when horses labored for us on the farms and in the mines, not tractors and machinery.
Yes, horsepower is a direct correlation to actual workhorses. Engineer James Watt vastly improved the efficiency and power of the early steam engine, which initially replaced the horse on farms and mining expeditions. Watt also lends his name to the Watt in the light bulb you are using in your house - a 60-watt bulb, for instance. The story goes that while observing a horse bringing coal out of a mine, Watt formulated the definition of horsepower, the one we still use today:
"One horse can do 33,000 foot-pounds of work every minute. So, imagine a horse raising coal out of a coal mine as shown in the image below. A horse exerting 1 horsepower can raise 330 pounds of coal 100 feet in a minute, or 33 pounds of coal 1,000 feet in one minute, or 1,000 pounds 33 feet in one minute. You can make up whatever combination of feet and pounds you like. As long as the product is 33,000 foot-pounds in one minute, you have a horsepower."
When the horse was replaced by steam engines and then combustion engines after that, such as what we use today, horsepower as a measurement and description of the engine's power output stuck around. With our engines, horsepower is a direct translation of how much horsepower and how many horses it would take to do what our vehicles do, though admittedly arbitrary and a little fanciful.
Horsepower is an ode to yesteryear and a constant reminder of technological pursuit, change, and evolution over the years. Every time you start your car, think about the belabored horses that worked so hard to give us the term Horsepower.
Read more about horsepower in the article below.
Happy learning!
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/horsepower.htm
