I feel betrayed...

The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.world to Memes@sopuli.xyz – 638 points –
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I was curious, so read up on wikipedia.

somebody measured horses in 2023, and foumd that horses produce 5,7hp https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsepower

edit: wikipedia links to youtube

https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/how-much-horsepower-does-a-horse-have this one also says 15, teorietically 24 🤯

Citing measurements made at the 1926 Iowa State Fair, they reported that the peak power over a few seconds has been measured to be as high as 14.88 hp (11.10 kW) and also observed that for sustained activity, a work rate of about 1 hp (0.75 kW) per horse is consistent with agricultural advice from both the 19th and 20th centuries [...]

Sounds to me like the 1 hp unit is fair, after all.

Here is the salient point on the Wikipedia page that explains why horses don’t produce 1 HP:

Watt judged that the horse could pull with a force of 180 pounds-force (800 N)

Basically, Watts made up HP to sell his steam engine to mines and likely made up a number to make the new technology seem better.

Some things never change.

Gotta love autocorrection of Watt into Watts. Watt = J/s = N*m/s = kg*m*m/(s^2*s) = kg*m^2/(s^3)

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