AutomotiveHistoryPower
Horsepower: From Steam Engines to Sports Cars
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Auto EnthusiastJames Watt needed a marketing term to sell his steam engines. He came up with 'Horsepower'.
We still rate our cars in horsepower, but have you ever seen a horse pull a Ferrari?
James Watt's Marketing Genius
In the 18th century, ponies were used to pull coal out of mines. Watt calculated that a pony could do 22,000 foot-pounds of work per minute. He increased that by 50% to 33,000 foot-pounds per minute and called it 'one horsepower' to make his engines sound impressive.
HP vs. kW
Engineers prefer Kilowatts (kW) because it's a precise metric unit equal to 1000 joules per second. 1 HP is approximately 0.746 kW.
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Auto Enthusiast
Contributing writer at MetricConv, covering measurement science, unit history, and practical conversion guides.
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