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How do you explain horsepower to kids?
Horsepower is a unit of power that is approximately how much work one horse can do. It is equal to 746 watts. The idea of horsepower was originated by James Watt, who invented the steam engine. Because people used horses to pull carts, it was an amount of energy that could be understood by most people at that time.
How is horsepower calculated in engine?
The equation to calculate horsepower is simple: Horsepower = Torque x RPM / 5,252.
What is horsepower in mechanical engineering?
The horsepower (hp) is a unit in the foot-pound-second ( fps ) or English system, sometimes used to express the rate at which mechanical energy is expended. It was originally defined as 550 foot-pounds per second (ft-lb/s). A power level of 1 hp is approximately equivalent to 746 watt s (W) or 0.746 kilowatt s (kW).
Why do they call it horse power?
James Watt, who invented steam engines, figured out a mathematical way to equate horses to engine power. Thus the term horsepower was invented. Watt measured the capability of a big horse to pull a load and found it could pull a weight of 150-pounds while walking at 2.5 miles per hour.
How do you explain HP?
Horsepower refers to the power an engine produces. It’s calculated through the power needed to move 550 pounds one foot in one second or by the power needs to move 33,000 pounds one foot in one minute. The power is gauged by the rate it takes to do the work.
What is horse power based on?
Calculating the Power of a Single Horse Each horse pushed with a force that Watt estimated at 180 pounds. From this, Watt calculated that one horsepower was equivalent to one horse doing 33,000 foot-pounds of work in one minute.
What is horse power measured in?
Mathematically speaking, horsepower is the force needed to move 550 pounds one foot in a second, or 33,000 pounds one foot in a minute. Engine horsepower is measured using a dynamometer, but what the dynamometer really does is measure the torque output of the engine, as well as the RPM – or “revolutions per minute”.
What is the meaning of horse power?
horsepower, the common unit of power; i.e., the rate at which work is done. In the British Imperial System, one horsepower equals 33,000 foot-pounds of work per minute—that is, the power necessary to lift a total mass of 33,000 pounds one foot in one minute.
What is breaking horse power?
brake horsepower in Electrical Engineering Brake horsepower is the horsepower of an engine measured by the degree of resistance offered by a brake, that represents the useful power that the machine can develop.
What is indicated horse power?
: the power developed in the cylinders of an engine as calculated from the average pressure of the working fluid, the piston area, the stroke, and the number of working strokes per minute.
How does horse power work?
How important is horsepower?
Horsepower is an important specification for buyers to consider, as it speaks directly to performance. For a given vehicle, an engine with more horsepower and more torque will accelerate more quickly — important for drivers who frequently use freeway on-ramps — and offer greater towing reliability.