Question is as the title suggests really.
Essentially I went on a watt bike the other day and my friend said I nearly produced one horse power. So obviously I then googled how much horse power a horse produces, and then when I found out it is more than one I was curious as to what animal produces one horse power and what we should change the measurement ‘horsepower’ too.
Also, I don’t think I’ve ever typed horse and horse power so much in such a little space
In: Mathematics
> I was curious as to what animal produces one horse power
Well, it looks like you proved a human does! And probably other animals of similar strength, like a husky pulling a dogsled.
> and what we should change the measurement ‘horsepower’ to.
Horsepower doesn’t refer to the peak output of a horse, but rather the sustainable output of a horse over a period of hours. A horse can output 5 HP for a few moments, or 1 HP consistently. A human can output 1-1.2 HP for a few moments, or 0.1 HP consistently.
If we’re going to run a tractor all day planting and harvesting a large field, we want to denote its strength in terms of sustained output in a biological analogue, not peak output.
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