Did You Know - Horsepower Edition

The Way You Think About Horsepower Is Completely Wrong

Horsepower is first and foremost a marketing tool

First things first, let's talk about what horsepower actually is. In reality, it's nothing more than a number meant to define an engine's capacity for work. The concept of comparing machines to horses was refined into a scientific formula by James Watt -- one of a handful of people who spearheaded the industrial revolution with his work on the steam engine in the mid-1700s, and the guy for whom watts (as in kilowatts) are named. Watt needed a way to market his steam engine to people who normally used horses to get stuff done. Through observing how much work a horse could do and applying some relatively simple math (HP= (Torque X RPM)/5,250), the concept of horsepower became marketing gold.

HP is actually pretty boring, once you get past the novelty of acceleration

The very first time you floor a car with 700 horsepower, it feels like a jump to hyperspace. Your sense of balance is thrown off, and your brain struggles to keep up with the rate at which the scenery is becoming increasingly blurred. The second time? It's still cool, but the more you do it, the more it becomes routine. I would know. I've been there.

After you've put your right foot down enough times, that kind of acceleration becomes routine, and you realize there are more things in life than horsepower.

(Thrillist.com)