Horsepower Defined ?
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From: Delaware
Originally Posted by SafetyDaveG
As I recall,
550 ft-lbs/sec = 1 horsepower.
and that's a pound-force, not a pound mass.....
550 ft-lbs/sec = 1 horsepower.
and that's a pound-force, not a pound mass.....
I was wondering if it actually had to do with the actual animal?
thanks
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Joined: May 2005
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From: Louisiana
Originally Posted by inurok
Does 300 HP actually mean the power of 300 individual horses working together?
Yes. My memory is a little foggy, but it evolved from some guy watching horses pulling a coal cart out of the mines.
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From: Pratt, KS
Quick and dirty Google search yielded the following:
Originally Posted by www.buckleyoldengineshow.org
The unit, horsepower, was originated by James Watt (1736-1819), the Scottish engineer who developed the first practical steam engine. When Watt offered to sell his steam engines to farmers and miners, he was probably asked how many horses they would replace. The value of the horsepower was based on his experiments with strong dray horses that were able to do about 50 percent more work than a standard horse in a working day. He concluded that an average draft horse could steadily exert a 150 pound force while walking at a speed of 2.5 miles and hour. The horse thus performed work at the rate of 33,000 foot-pounds per minute, or 550 foot-pounds per second. Watt defined this rate as 1 horsepower.
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From: Indy
