Horse Power

Anonymous Poster · Dec 9, 2000

How much horse power does a real horse really have?

art · Dec 9, 2000

Are you asking about Clydesdales or Shetland pony's?

Anonymous Poster · Dec 9, 2000

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

Von · Dec 9, 2000

My guess is 1.

Von

Anonymous Poster · Dec 9, 2000

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 · Dec 9, 2000

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 · Dec 9, 2000

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

)

Anonymous Poster · Dec 9, 2000

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 · Dec 9, 2000

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."/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bird

ERNIEB · Dec 9, 2000

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./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

ErnieB
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