argumate:

shieldfoss:

argumate:

soundlogic2236:

deluxetrashqueen:

I find it ridiculous that we still use “Horsepower” as a unit of measurement in this day and age. It means nothing to me. I have no idea of how much power a horse has and I’m frankly terrified to even contemplate it. 

…I’m gonna guess a horse has about 1 horsepower.

and you would be wrong! they have about fifteen, at peak output.

Now you got me googling and my God I hate the real explanation but it makes sense.

Horse power (hp) as a term was invented to sell steam engines. That means what you needed to tell e.g. a mill owner was how many horses he could replace with an engine

So if you’re running a steel mill off a 60 horse stable, you need a 60 hp engine. That’s a lot less energy than if you had all 60 horses working together at once, but that’s not how a mill does, some of the horses are sleeping, some of the horses are recovering from illness, only 4 of those horses are working right now.

So a 60 hp engine delivers as much work as four horses, but does so continuously which 4 horses can’t - you need 60 horses to continuously do the work of 4 horses.

lazy slacking horses with their need to sleep and eat and goof off