Have you ever wondered what horsepower means? While many people use it in regular conversation, very few know what it means.
The term horsepower originated in the 18th century. It was coined by the steam engine-designer James Watt. During those times, he was having trouble selling more steam engines and decided to come up with a measurement unit to impress consumers. The reason why horses were chosen was due to the fact that the average ponies at coal mines could do 22,000 foot-pounds of work in one minute.
After coming up with that estimate he bumped it up to 33,000 foot-pounds and called it a unit of horsepower. This would mean that a unit of horsepower would be the equivalent of a single pony pulling 33 pounds of weight for one minute.
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