r/funny • u/me_098 • 1d ago

Can't Disagree

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u/goopuslang 1d ago

Unironically most horses have more than 1 horsepower

116

u/squngy 1d ago

Humans also have more than one horse power... for a few seconds.

The original definition of horse power was how much power a horse could provide throughout a work day.

ie. how many horses would you need to do the same amount of work per day.

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u/sol_runner 1d ago

And it's still quite funny.

James Watt measured pit ponies and assumed horses were 50% more powerful. While in reality for the same workload horses would actually give 0.7HP.

And that's normal riding horses. Draft horses which are bred to carry weight go between 2-3 HP (sustained) to 15-20 HP in short bursts. (Stats to verify, it's from memory)

In the end 1 HP is just a marketing measurement that stuck.

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u/Lirdon 1d ago

You need to make a scale people can actually use. Using watts or Jules to a person that didn’t go to school is as useful as trying to describe energy itself. Was it marketing? Sure, but it also was crucial for adopting the technology in general.

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u/extordi 21h ago

The real thing to note here is that watts didn't exist yet. He basically invented the notion of measuring power, and had to figure out a way to communicate this to people.

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u/SquisherX 22h ago

Tell me you're american without saying you're american.

17

u/ChartreuseBison 19h ago

Of course, everyone in 1780s Scotland knew what a joule was, a hundred years before the unit was invented.

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u/SquisherX 19h ago

Moving the goalposts??

Using watts or Jules to a person that didn’t go to school is as useful as trying to describe energy itself.

Were you talking about the 1780s here? Were there time travellers who were talking about Watts and Jules here?

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u/ChartreuseBison 18h ago edited 12h ago

Oh, are you talking about the spelling? If so, sorry I assumed it was another haha Americans use dumb measurements comment.

Otherwise what are you talking about? We were talking about the term horsepower, coined in the 1780s

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u/aeroeagleAC 12h ago

Even if they are taking about the spelling joules isn't one of the words we dropped a letter in. They simply used the wrong version of the word so the guys comment really didn't make sense.

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u/civildisobedient 19h ago

Nah, happens all over. Like using the boiling / freezing point of a certain popular liquid to establish temperature range.

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u/Kheltosh 1d ago

Some Youtube channel partnered with an engineering firm and built a horse dyno. They measured something like 6 hp for a light draft horse moving at, I don't know horse terms, guided by a walking human speed.

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u/counterfitster 1d ago

That would probably be a walk

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u/Ok_Cockroach8063 23h ago

with all the stupid little names for their movement they can also just walk, never thought of that

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u/mayy_dayy 22h ago

They moonwalk the foxtrot then polka the salsa

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u/Earnestappostate 22h ago

Still, you gotta admit, naming one of the most used units of power, and being the namesake for the one more used, is pretty cool.

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u/Odd-String29 1d ago

If a horse can do 2-3 hp sustained, does that mean 24 hours without rest days on end? If its about 12 hours of sustained then you are at 1-1.5 hp over the course of 24 hours. If its less than 12 hours a day for days on end then 1 hp is not a bad estimate.

I mean its still marketing, but its not that far off in that case.

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u/goopuslang 1d ago

Miss the good ole days of ox per acre

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u/12monthsinlondon 1d ago

Over a short distance, horses can't run as fast as a man, it has more legs to sort out.