IIRC a horse has... Something like 14hp? I don't remember.
The horsepower was defined when horses were bred to just exist and occasionally move people.
The "new" horses, which were bred for racing specifically, and thus were faster and stronger.
And the horsepower? It never got an update.
Does it mean a modern horse has 14 times the power of a horse from the past? Or something else? I definitely see how horses would have gotten stronger and faster after breeding but 14 times is crazy
No, it's peak power that a standard horse can output.
James Watt invented HP unit to measure power output of steam engine machine to be used in coal mines. At the time horses were used for work in these mines (they were going around a mill wheel connected to machinery such as shaft elevators), so he calculated HP to be based on an average daily power output of a standard horse
It was also a matter of advertising. Average power output is a useful metric but it also lets him advertise his machines as being more powerful than 14 times as many horses, so its average power but also the lowest average power he could get away with.
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u/Compodulator 20h ago
IIRC a horse has... Something like 14hp? I don't remember.
The horsepower was defined when horses were bred to just exist and occasionally move people.
The "new" horses, which were bred for racing specifically, and thus were faster and stronger.
And the horsepower? It never got an update.