Horse Power

[DONOTDELETE]

How much horse power does a real horse really have?

[art]

Are you asking about Clydesdales or Shetland pony's?

[DONOTDELETE]

Just for the sake of argument, let's say an average sized draft horse.

[Von]

My guess is 1.

Von

[DONOTDELETE]

We need 550 ft/lbs per second for 1 hp.

So we put a rope on our horse, run it over a pulley-on-a-tree, to a 550 lb. wt. on the ground. If the horse can pull it up 10 feet in 10 seconds he's a 1 horse-power horse( actually a little more, since there is some friction loss in the system. To make it a little more manageable "gear-wise" we can use 275 lbs., in which case he'll have to pull it 20 feet in 10 seconds, or 10 feet in 5 seconds. Any weight can be used, if the math is adjusted to suit,... a race horse might be able to put out impressive hp with a light weight, same as a small high-revving engine. but for heavy loads, the high-torque/low-geared draft-horse would be the way to go. HTH :-)

Larry

[PaulB]

Not sure about a horse, but a true world class human athlete, like Lance Armstrong, can sustain only about 1/3 horsepower for any lenth of time except a brief moment where he might peak higher. Nobody, I mean nobody, could generate anything close to 1 full horsepower. I have to think that a horse would be, what, 5 or 10 times this???

[scruffy]

Old Horse, or Young Horse? Suppose that would have a bearing on the question! Kinda like us. )

[DONOTDELETE]

If I remember correctly from years ago, the average horse produces about 3/4 of a horsepower. I would imagine a draft horse would be more like one horsepower.

Andy

[Bird]

Scruffy, age does make a difference, doesn't it? Even with tractors, I suppose. I remember the first tractor I ever drove when I was a kid. Dad had just bought it and before he had it overhauled, I asked him what horsepower it was, and he said, "I think it's supposed to be 11 hp, "but I think right now it's down to about one mule power."[img]/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Bird

[ERNIEB]

Scruffy, the old horse being smarter would have nothing to do with pulling weights. He would be standing under a tree watching the younger one do it. Horse sense.[img]/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif[/img]

ErnieB
"We were surrounded by some gross, proud, and victorious men. Anyone who knows the character of the North Americans can judge what our situation must have been.
Jose Juan Sanchez Navarro