Why is the speed of cars called "Horsepower"?

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In the 1790's it was the power of one horse, as horses were used for transport. There have been many definitions for the term over the years since James Watt first coined the term in 1782, and there is no agreed amount of power for the term.The following metrics have been widely used:

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Mechanical horsepower — 0.74569987158227022 kW (33,000 ft·lbs per minute)
Metric horsepower — 0.73549875 kW
Electrical horsepower — 0.746 kW
Boiler horsepower — 9.8095 kW
Additionally, the term "horsepower" has been applied to calculated (rather than measured) metrics

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It isn't

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Horsepower refers to the power output of the engine. as in 200BHP. This has no reference to speed at all. Other factors effect speed, such as weight of vehicle and how aerodynamic it is. there are some new methods for working out power but the old HP or Brake Horse power was worked out as how fast you could lift a given weight over a certain vertical dist ace. It literally was how fast a horse could lift a given weight.

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That's not the speed of cars, is a measurement of engine power.

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Because it was most probably given the name by guys.

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Same reason that chocolate is called fudge.

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It isn't, the speed is called speed.
Horsepower is a peasure of the power.

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Its how many horses it would take to pull it.

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the power of the engine is measured in horsepower.

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The power of an engine is commonly measured in "horsepower" this was done in times gone by when the "horseless carriage" as they were called first came about. The makers of these motorized carriages needed a way to tell people how powerful the engine was in terms that they could understand. Since everyone was familiar with horses and what they could pull, they used horse power.

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Horsepower is a measurement of engine output not vehicle speed.

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It's not their speed but the power output of their engines. Originally, it was to compare with what people had been familiar with prior to engines being used. Then it became the basis for charging road tax ( where 125 c.c.equated with one horsepower). I see it expressed mostly now as Kw which I don't understand as I am so used to BHP as the measure.

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horsepower is related to the engine. the more of it you have. the faster you go...E

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speed isn't horse power...horsepower is the amount of power the engine has..and its called that because the average work horse can do 745.6 Watts worth of work or 33,000ft/lbs of work a minute...so that is the amount of work that engine can do per minute so to speak...its just a measure of power...dont' worry about it...

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Horses were the original mode of 'road' transport and it took more horses to pull a crowded stage coach than it did a small horse and trap. There 'horse power' literally means the number of horses it would take to do that amount of 'work'. (However, I've no idea how they work it out and I'd love to know that myself.)

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It isn't really, horsepower is a measurement of the pulling power of the engine. Obviously the more pulling power an engine has the faster it goes so the speed thing is a side effect if you like.

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It's called horsepower because engines used to be measured against the other mode of transport of the day, the horse drawn carriage. If you connected a car with a 1 horsepower engine to a rope with a horse on the other end the tug-o-war would be a draw, a 2 horsepower engine would beat one horse but draw against 2 and so on.

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Speed isnt called Horsepower. Horsepower relates to the power of the engine and not necessarily how fast it can go.

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It's not .Horsepower is power available to move a mass (car) eg
a car with more horsepower would accelerate faster than one which has less,as long as both cars are the same weight

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its not the speed but the pulling power of the engine called brake horse power where the manufacturer aplys abrake on the out put end and measures the hores power its based on what one horse can pull hope this wasent to boring

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Horsepower is a measure of work/time.

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Wikipedia:
There have been many definitions for the term over the years since James Watt first coined the term in 1782. The following metrics have been widely used:

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* Mechanical horsepower — 0.74569987158227022 kW (33,000 ft·lbs per minute)
* Metric horsepower — 0.73549875 kW
* Electrical horsepower — 0.746 kW
* Boiler horsepower — 9.8095 kW

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Additionally, the term "horsepower" has been applied to calculated (rather than measured) metrics:

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* RAC horsepower is based solely on the dimensions of a piston engine

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That separates it from torque which is turning force. Horsepower can be calculated however by torque vs rpm.

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Why is the speed of cars called "Horsepower"?
-From the media.

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A car can have much less horsepower and be faster than a car with more horsepower of the same car size because of having 100 or MORE ft/lbs(foot pounds) of torque like a diesel.

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Which one is faster?
200HP 210ft/lbs torque Gasoline
170HP 400ft/lbs torque Diesel

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-The Diesel is much faster from having more torque. And gets better MPG to boot
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