• pacology@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Here is the salient point on the Wikipedia page that explains why horses don’t produce 1 HP:

    Watt judged that the horse could pull with a force of 180 pounds-force (800 N)

    Basically, Watts made up HP to sell his steam engine to mines and likely made up a number to make the new technology seem better.

    Some things never change.

    • uis@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      Gotta love autocorrection of Watt into Watts. Watt = J/s = N*m/s = kg*m*m/(s^2*s) = kg*m^2/(s^3)