A horse is just one, but it contains many horses – of power. In the eighteenth century, it was very good, and the concept was invented by a well -known engineering genius, who did not like to drive in these animals.
The famous engineer James Watt, Inventor of the unit of power measurement we still use today, I was very fond of horses.
Known for its improvements in the steam engine, it is one of the main engineers ever, essential for the Industrial Revolution. It was he who invented the horsepoweror, in Portuguese, the “horsepower”, or “vapor horse”.
When Watt invented the steam engine, he needed a way to compare the power of his invention with the dominant force at the time – the horses – explains the Cipasa.
A explains Watt’s definition: a power horse is approximately average work rate that a healthy traction horse can do for a whole day.
According to SF, Watt’s goal was to convince his clients that Changing a horse for a steam engine was a good investmentsince a horse had fewer horses than its invention.
In 1993, a biologists with a sense of refined humor, RD Stevenson and RJ Wassersug, decided to calculate how many horses, or horsepowerthere is a horse.
Previous studies had calculated that if the maximum sustainable mechanical power per kilogram of muscle is between 100 and 200 watts, the researchers estimated that a single horse would perform a theoretical performance of 18,000 W, ie about 24 horsepower. However, the 1993 study proved that, in fact, this number is lower: A horse has about 14.9 horses.
In comparison, A normal car has, on average about 180 horsepower, according to.
Of course, over time, horses lose horses – that is, power, as their muscles become weaker, with less energy and traction capacity. A little like cars, which over time, with dirt and use, lose their power.
