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Can someone tell me what is horsepower?


Angelinasoul
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to me..horsepower..is just a measurement...haha..i always use 1 real horse many steps.......as the gauge for the power... if 1000 horsepower...then 1 thousand horse behind me push car..if u step on the accelerator...if kill people..then 1000 horse kill people..that kind of power...tts my thinking.... i also curious [:p]

Edited by Hotfavourite
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I thought horsepower is something that when you step on your accelerator from traffic lights, you will be the first to reach the next traffic lights?! :D

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It is a measurement of power. A more familiar unit we use is watt or kilowatt.

 

Power is the rate of use of energy, i.e. power = energy per unit time.

 

Energy itself is routinely measured as an ability to lift a mass vertically. (mass x gravity constant x height)

Edited by Topspin
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Does this picture ring a bell ?? This is one donkey power, put a horse to do the work = one horsepower.Any more question??

post-272-1346117635_thumb.jpg

Edited by Yeobh
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how it came about?

 

The term "horsepower" was coined by the engineer James Watt (1736 to 1819) in 1782 while working in the performance of steam engines. This occurred while using a mine pony to lift coal out of a coal mine. He conceived the idea of defining the power exerted by these animals to accomplish this work. He found that, on the average, a mine horse could pull (lift by means of a pulley) 22,000 foot-pounds per minute. Rather than call this "pony" power, he increased these test results by 50 percent, and called it horsepower i.e. 33,000 foot-pounds of work per minute.

 

1 horsepower = 22,000 ft lbs/min + ( 50% of 22,000 ft lbs/min)

= 33,000 ft.lbs/min

 

1 horsepower ≡ 33,000 ft

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how it came about?

 

The term "horsepower" was coined by the engineer James Watt (1736 to 1819) in 1782 while working in the performance of steam engines. This occurred while using a mine pony to lift coal out of a coal mine. He conceived the idea of defining the power exerted by these animals to accomplish this work. He found that, on the average, a mine horse could pull (lift by means of a pulley) 22,000 foot-pounds per minute. Rather than call this "pony" power, he increased these test results by 50 percent, and called it horsepower i.e. 33,000 foot-pounds of work per minute.

 

1 horsepower = 22,000 ft lbs/min + ( 50% of 22,000 ft lbs/min)

= 33,000 ft.lbs/min

 

1 horsepower ≡ 33,000 ft

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Neutral Newbie

Does this picture ring a bell ?? This is one donkey power, put a horse to do the work = one horsepower.Any more question??

 

That's seems like 1 donkey instead. Lol

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I thought horsepower is something that when you step on your accelerator from traffic lights, you will be the first to reach the next traffic lights?! :D

what if the horse refuse to move when light turn 'green' .... [:(]

 

hang a carrot in front of the horse = 1 horse power

hang 4 carrots in front = 4 horse power ........................ [laugh][laugh]

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Horsepower is a measurement unit for power of the device [in this case, car engine].

To explain in technical terms would take a few pages.

 

In everyday terms, horsepower rating for a car would inform the potential buyer how powerful the car engine will be. The buyer might use this for comparing various cars before deciding which car to buy.

eg. Car A [190 HP] will be more powerful than Car B [150 HP].

However, there are various other factors to consider : fuel economy, brand, perfomance, pricings, etc....

 

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Neutral Newbie

What is torque then?

 

How much force is available to get something moving. High torque would enable one to accelerate from zero quickly, or be able to pull heavier loads with less effort.

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I have an analogy i usually use to describe to my friends.

 

Imagine the normal 6 speed mountain bikes we ride. on gear 1, its very easy to pedal but u can never get fast anywhere while on gear 6 you find it hard to start right?

 

Some people legs stronger, can start in gear 6 easy and start pedalling but their legs cannot turn the pedals fast. Some ppl leg like chicken leg, need to start on gear 1 but able to pedal more rotations in a given time.

 

When the bike is already moving, the chicken leg can go fast because its more a matter of pedalling quickly rather than having the brute strength to overcome the hard gearing on gear 6.

 

 

Chicken leg = HP while torque = strong legs...

 

HP is derived from torque x RPM / 5252

 

Thats why F1 cars can derive their horse power with a relatively low capa engine since they frequently hit over 10k RPM

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