I’m confused about the meaning of this word. Is it how much a horse can pull translated into how much the engine can pull? Also, what is the actual “metric”? Why do we still use this? It seems archaic.
Also, what type of horse was originally used to get the measurement?
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Horsepower is a measure of power. It’s the amount of power required 550 pounds 1 foot in 1 second.
A guy named James Watt made up the measure. He measured how quickly a horse could turn a wheel at a mill and named that “horsepower”. Today, we usually measure power in units called “Watts”. Like pounds, gallons, and ounces, there are a few different definitions of horsepower that are slightly different amounts of power (because there’s different ways of measuring it in different situations), but 1 horsepower is roughly 745 Watts.
In terms of a car or truck, the horsepower describes the power of the engine, or how quickly it can move the vehicle. More horsepower means the car can move more weight faster.
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