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goes back to james watt experiments to define a unit for power involving using a horse lifting a weight up a mineshaft, arrived at:

1 hp = 33000 (lbs force - feet) per minute

= approx 745 watts

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Q: Why do people use the term horsepower to measure power?
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What was the term used to describe a engine power?

Horsepower and Torque


What is meant by brake horse power in cars?

Brake horsepower (bhp) is the measure of an engine's horsepower without the loss in power caused by the gearbox, generator, differential, water pump and other auxiliaries. Thus the prefix "brake" refers to where the power is measured: at the engine's output shaft, as on an engine dynamometer. The actual horsepower delivered to the driving wheels is less. An engine would have to be retested to obtain a rating in another system. The term "brake" refers to the use of a band brake to measure torque during the test (which is multiplied by the engine speed in revs/sec and the circumference of the band to give the power).


IN reference to autos What is the difference between brake horse power and barrel horse power?

Brake horsepower (bhp) is the measure of an engine's horsepower without the loss in power caused by the gearbox, generator, differential, water pump, and other auxiliary components. Thus the prefix "brake" refers to where the power is measured: at the engine's output shaft, as on an engine dynamometer. The actual horsepower delivered to the driving wheels is less. An engine would have to be retested to obtain a rating in another system. The term "brake" refers to the original use of a band brake to measure torque during the test (which is multiplied by the engine RPM and a scaling constant to give horsepower). Never heard of Barrel H.P.


What is the meaning of motor of 50 horsepower?

Horsepower is a unit of power. For an electric motor, the horsepower is defined as 746 watts of power. For a 50 horsepower motor, that translates to 37.3 KW.The origin of the term came from an attempt to equate the power of a horse versus the power of a steam engine. Early ratings came out to be about 33,000 foot-pounds per minute or about 550 foot-pounds per second. Today, the term varies, depending on the application. For electric motors, again, it is 746 watts.


What does bhp brake horsepower mean?

Brake horse power is the power output of the drive shaft on an engine without the power loss caused by the gears, transmission, friction, etc. The actual useful horsepower delivered to the propellor or wheel is called the shaft horsepower. Its also called effective ,true, wheel horsepower as well as other terms. The term horsepower is is not a good measurement of power as there asre too many different systems of measuring horsepower. The current trend is to use kilowatts or megawatts.


Why it is called horsepower and not elephant power?

The term comes from an engineer who was working on steam engines. He calculated the average amount of weight a pony could pull a certain distance. He chose ponies because they were used to move coal out of mines. He decided to increase that average by 50% and call it horse power. It quickly became an easy way to measure power in cars. The people who used this term had much more contact with horses than elephants so horse power would make more sense to them. Had the term been established in Africa or Asia elephant power could be have been a likely candidate.


How many humans equal one horsepower?

Power is defined as 'the rate at which work is done'. In SI, power is measured in watts. In the Imperial system of measurements, power is measured in horsepower.So, you cannot 'convert power into horsepower'. Horsepower, together with the watt, are simply units in which power is measured.


What is one horsepower?

One horsepower is equivalent to 746 watts ( = joules of energy per second) or 550 ft.lb (force) of work per second.The horsepower or hp is the Imperial unit of measurement for power."Power" is the scientific term used to describe "capacity to perform some work".These days, in most countries, it has been replaced by an SI unit, the watt (or, in practice, kilowatt).The term brake horsepower refers to the rated output power of a machine, which is not to be confused with the amount of input power it requires to be able to generate that amount of rated output power.In the case of a car engine, the brake horsepower (or kilowatts) is the power remaining after all the losses have been taken into account. (Heat emitted, gearbox friction, etc.) In other words, output power (brake power) is input power minus losses.For more information see the Related link shown below.


What is horsepower in bikes?

Horsepower (hp or HP[1]) is the name of several non-metric units of power. In scientific discourse, the term "horsepower" is rarely used because of its various definitions and the already existent SI unit for power, the watt (W). However, use of the term "horsepower" persists as a legacy in many languages and industries, particularly as a units of measurement of the maximum power output of internal-combustion engines of automobiles, and often of trucks, buses and ships. The use of 'HP' is being slowly replaced by kW (kilowatt) and MW (megawatt).


What is the most powerful Acura car?

A vehicles "power" is usually measured by the term "horsepower". The Acura model with the most horsepower is the Acura TL-SH AWD. This car first was first released to the market in 2012. It boasts 304 horsepower. Other Acura models have horsepower around 280 HP.


What is the term for a unit of electricity for kids?

There are different units for electricity, depending on what you want to measure; for example: volts to measure voltage amperes to measure current watts to measure power etc.


Who created the term horsepower?

James watt