Horsepower

Status
Not open for further replies.
G

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
210502-2424 EDT

Have you ever measured the average horsepower or watts for you to go up one flight of stairs at a reasonable pace? You probably could not maintain this average power level for 10 stories.

Do you know how to do this measurement?

In high school physics class each student performed this experiment as the subject. The other students were taking the data. We also did an automotive braking test.

These experiments were a long time ago for me, 1948, 73 years back.
 
1/2 HP for < 30 sec spurt was tops. Circa 1957 for when our HS physics class did this.
Back in 48, were you allowed to add weight, aka girlfriend on your back? Only way to get HP up was to add weight.
IIRC one of the 'jocks' did 1/3 HP over 3 floor (all 3 HS floors)

Nowadays, just readout watts (or HP) on yer treadmill?
 
210502-2705 EDT

Wow! 550*30 = 16,500 . Divide by 2 and lets assume 30 ft, and that is 275 #. If less than 30 ft, then more than 275.

My recollection was that we were nearer 1 hp for about 12 ft. We were much faster than 30 seconds.

One HP and 12 ft would be about 3.5 seconds for us.

At the Henry Ford Museum there is a hand crank generator, and an associate of mine was able to momentarily hand crank some slight amount above 1 HP. I was somewhat below 1 HP on that demonstration, at least a few year ago, possibly not now.

.
 
On one of the Blue Circle works had about 20 metal stairs - that was a little bit of a challenge....
 
steve66 said:
Bicyclists measure usually measure their power output in watts, which makes it easy to visualize effort in terms of HP.

I can hit around 700 watts for a few seconds, but my best average for any significant length of time is much closer to 200 watts.

Olympic cyclist vs. toaster:

Olympic Cyclist Vs. Toaster: Can He Power It? - YouTube
Click to expand...
Lol, I was going to link to that exact video. It's a good one, really puts watts and horsepower into perspective!
 
I once had a project to help design a motor and drive system for a treadmill for training race horses. One would THINK that 1 horse on a treadmill would be capable of producing 1 horsepower. Nope. We ended up with a 20HP motor and drive, a few of the top horses could peg that. The "pace horses", the ones used to just keep the other horses calm, could produce about 10HP, the racers averaged between 13 and 18HP, sustained. the funniest part was that on any given day, a horse what would peg at 20HP one day would then just put out 12HP the next time you put him on. They had bad moods and good moods. That's why I never bet on horse races. WAY too variable!
 
If I recall correctly, the original horsepower was based on the amount of useful work a draft horse could produce per day. So yes, a horse's peak output will be considerably more than one "horsepower".
 
drcampbell said:
If I recall correctly, the original horsepower was based on the amount of useful work a draft horse could produce per day. So yes, a horse's peak output will be considerably more than one "horsepower".
Click to expand...
" It's a common misconception that one horsepower is equal to the peak power production of a horse, which is capable of a maximum of around 14.9 horsepower. ... Instead, Watt designated horsepower to be equivalent to the amount of power that a horse can sustain for an extended period of time."
Another famous Scotsman...........besides my self of course.............:)
 
electrofelon said:
I am mostly a mongrel but I have a little Scot in me, can I join the party??
Click to expand...
Of course!
A little bit of inform if I may, Mr Mods?
The population of Scotland is 4.5 million. England is 56 million, USA is 328 million. Puts the 4.5m in perspective.. Especially number of their famous names.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top