Today I learned the metric equivalent of horsepower is, horsepower. You’d think someone would have come up with a better name.
Today I learned the metric equivalent of horsepower is, horsepower. You’d think someone would have come up with a better name.
The metric equivalent, if you’re talking about how it’s measured in places like Europe, is kilowatts.
You’re right, yet there are two definitions of the horse power, the imperial
1 hp ≈ 745.7 Wand the metric1 hp = 735.49875 W. The latter is usually given in its local name, e.g. as PS, cv, … etc., while the imperial is usually hp independent of the language of the document.As you said, in Europe, quantifying the power of a machine (e.g. a car) in horse powers is supplementary only and thus, does not suffice on its own, the data must always be given in kW.
to further complicate things … we also use:
and a few others (when talking about vehicles at least)
We’re a mess
Yet somehow people still use PS or horsepower in everyday language. At least in Germany.
One reason is probably that the power in PS is a 36 % larger number than in kW.