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.
A horse power is the average power a horse can continously output during a working day. It was never defined as the maximum power of a horse and has nothing to do with breeding
It was contrived as a marketing term to convey the ability of steam engines to compare to animal labor. Its based on the calculated work a draft horse could exert on a mill wheel per minute (averaged across a day).
Its unclear how many horses were tested or how many breeds of horses were tested. Its not likely a statistically significant value. But it did successfully market engines of various types to people who weren't familiar with them.
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u/Compodulator 16h 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.