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[–] 144 points 3 years ago (17 children)

It's true!

Although it may seem safe to assume that one horsepower is the output a horse is capable of creating at any one time, that is incorrect. In fact, the maximum output of a horse can be up to 15 horsepower,[2] and the maximum output of a human is a bit more than a single horsepower. For extreme athletes, this output can be even higher with Tour de France riders outputting around 1.2 horsepower for around 15 seconds, and just under 0.9 horsepower for a minute.[3]
https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Horsepower

I must now once again question the nature of reality.

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  • [–] 129 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    the maximum output of a horse can be up to 15 horsepower,

    That's the problem. The unit was not developed on the maximum power a horse could put out. It was intended to be what a typical horse could continuously sustain throughout the work day.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago

    Also why switching horses was a thing: a fully rested horse could run at a higher hp, then change horses and the new one could keep outputting thevhigher up whilecthe previous one rested.

    Like switching rechargeable batteries, only the battery was the horse.

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  • [–] 70 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    Wasn't one unit of horsepower meant to represent sustained power, not peak power of a horse?

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  • [–] 35 points 3 years ago

    Average, not necessarily sustained. Horse gotta rest at some point regardless of how much power it’s putting out

    Iirc it’s an average over 1 day (24hrs) without regard to rest. So even sustained a horse is putting out more than 1hp at any given point in time

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  • [–] 53 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    HP from now on is called humanpower.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago

    It's just playing with fractions and linear extrapolation. Horsepower has a time denominator. If you measure how fast I can run (not fast) in .1 second intervals, then take the highest number and extrapolate that to miles per hour it will seem impressive.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    you have to be a horse to do the tour de france

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