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Man with a 3.5 horsepower motorcycle, Australia, ~1908 (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago by PugJesus@lemmy.world to c/historyporn@lemmy.world

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[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Joke answer: Style

Real answer: Horsepower originates from the potential sustained work of a (more-or-less) average horse of the 18th century. A horse at full speed is outputting more-than-one-horsepower - at a gallop, they're outputting 10 horsepower or more.

[–] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 8 points 11 months ago

Hmm .. style over substance 😇

I just went down a rabbit hole as a result of your reply. Thank you!

The horsepower was defined by James Watt as a way to compare his steam engines against draft horses. The unit of power in use today is Watt and is named after him.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsepower

For a giggle, if you're into SI units, look at the definition of a horsepower.