How is horsepower determined? Horsepower and other units of engine power

Instruction

If you are going to calculate the horsepower of your car, use the Russian and measurement system. In it, one "horse" is defined as 75 kg x m / s. Translated into scientific measurements, this is that one horsepower equals the power that is enough to lift a load of 75 kg to a height of 1 meter in 1 second of time. Also, "" is also translated into kilowatts. According to this translation, 1 hp. equals 735.5 W or 0.735 kW. And here maximum speed, which can be developed by an ordinary horse, a boiler horsepower.

In accordance with this, it is possible to obtain power values ​​by translation. So, for example, if the power of a car is indicated in kilowatts, then to convert it into "horses" you need to divide the indicated value in kW by 0.735 and get the number of horsepower in this car.

One of the most simple ways how you can calculate in horsepower (especially after tuning) is to go to a service or inspection point. There are special computer installations that determine the number of "horses". To do this, you need to put the car on the platform of the device and press the gas pedal all the way. During the time that the machine is running, the computer mechanism will take all the necessary measurements and tell you the result.

For the sake of interest, you can calculate not only the power of your car, but also your own. In order to calculate correctly, you need to measure the time (t) in which you can run a ladder of a certain height (h). After that, the resulting values ​​\u200b\u200bmust be inserted into the formula: m x h / t. m here is your body weight. Such a joke test will help you calculate how hardy and fast you are in your movements. In addition, such funny calculations can be great entertainment for a family evening, when you can calculate its power for each family member.

Sources:

  • What is 1 horsepower equal to?

Kilowatt (kW) is a unit of power, i.e. the ratio of work to the length of time in which it was completed. However, power can be measured in other units, and kilowatts can be easily converted to any of them by a simple multiplication method.

You will need

  • Calculator or converter

Instruction

It is often necessary to convert to units such as joules per second (J/s) when solving. It is very easy to do this, because one per second is equal to one. Therefore, to convert kilowatts per second, you just need to multiply them by 10 to the third power, i.e. per thousand. For example, 5 kW = 5 x 1000 = 5000 J/s.

Another common unit of measure for power is horsepower (hp), but it is not included in the SI system. When converting to this unit, it is important to clarify what kind of horsepower is meant. In our country, metric horsepower is more commonly used. One kilowatt is approximately equal to 1.36 metric hp. And in the US and to some extent in the UK, horsepower refers to electric horsepower. One kilowatt corresponds approximately to 1.34 electrical hp. There is also the so-called boiler horsepower. A kilowatt is approximately equal to 0.1 boiler hp. So 5 kW x 1.36 = 6.8 metric hp, and also 5 kW x 1.34 = 6.7 electrical hp. and 5 kW x 0.1 = 0.5 boiler horsepower.

The concept of "horsepower" has been known to all motorists for a very long time. Previously, all the hard work was done with the help of horses. Later, the first steam engine was created, which replaced them, and to determine its power, they resorted to comparison with the number of horses. Now horsepower, as a unit, is gradually being replaced by a new value of the SI measurement system - watt or kilowatt.

Recently, in most European countries, including Russia, it is customary to designate the power of vehicles not as usual in horsepower, but in units - kilowatts.

In this regard, very often it is required to find out the number of kilowatts that corresponds to a certain value of horsepower and vice versa.

To convert from kW to l / s and vice versa, you can use the calculator:

Conversion from kW to L / s and vice versa

kWL/s


One horsepower in our country, like in Europe, is 0.735 kW, or vice versa - 1 kW will be equal to 1.36 l / s (many people use the value 1.4 to calculate in whole numbers).

For example, for a car with a power of 70 horsepower, the power in kilowatts will be 51 (70 l / s is equal to 70 / 1.36 or 51 kW).

Where did the value of 0.735 kW come from?

As has been customary for a long time, scientists obtained all the values ​​in the course of experiments. So with a value of 735 watts.

It was taken as a basis that one horse will be able to pull the weight with a total weight load of 75 kg at a certain speed of 1 m / s. One horse, as it has already happened, is considered to be 1 l / s. When converted to watts and kilowatts, it is not difficult to get the following, that 735W will be equal to 1 l / s.

If rounded to integer values, we get that 1l / s is equal to 0.74kW.

Now in all passport documents for a car, namely in registration certificates, as a rule, two values ​​\u200b\u200bare indicated at once - in kilowatts and the corresponding value in horsepower. This, in turn, is convenient and does not require additional translations.

So,

  • in order to convert from the value - l / s to the value - kW, you need to divide the value of l / s by 1.36 (a car with a power of 170 l / s corresponds to 125 kW).
  • And vice versa, if you need a conversion from kW to l / s, then you need to multiply the kW value by 1.4 (vehicles with a power of 88 kW correspond to 120 l / s).

For a short time, a horse can develop a power of 10 - 13 horsepower, but with normal rhythmic work, just about one. Why was "horsepower" used as a unit of power? And how much is one horsepower?

The inventor of the steam engine, the Englishman James Watt (1736–1819), is “blamed” for this. He needed to clearly demonstrate to the public that his car could replace many horses, and for this it was necessary to somehow measure the work that the horse itself could produce in a unit of time.

Describe such a story. James Watt suggested using steam instead of horses in breweries. Watching horses, Watt noticed that a horse could drag a load weighing 14.774 kg over a distance of 0.3 m in 1 minute. Rounding 14.774 kg to 15 kg, he introduced the unit of power "horsepower". Comparing the performance of a horse and a steam engine using this unit, Watt convinced brewers to replace horses with steam, and as a result, the efficiency of the brewing process increased significantly.

This “herd” was finished in 1960 - the XI General Conference on Weights and Measures adopted the unified International System of Units SI (SI). In it, power is expressed in watts in honor of the same James Watt.

However, even now there is the concept of horsepower. At one time, Watt, observing the traditional source of energy - a horse, came to the conclusion that a barrel weighing 180 kg can be pulled out of the mine by two horses at a speed of 2 miles / h (3.6 km / h). In this case, the horsepower in English measures takes the form of 1 liter. With. = 1/2 barrel · 2 mph = 1 barrel · mile / hour (here the barrel is taken as a unit of force, not mass). The same in smaller units is 380 lbs at 88 ft/min. Rounding off the calculations in foot-pounds per minute, he decided that the horsepower would be 33,000 foot-pounds per minute. Watt's calculations referred to horse power averaged over a long time. For a short time, a horse can develop a power of about 1000 kgf m / s, which corresponds to 9.8 kW or 33,475 BTU / h (boiler horsepower)

Units in different countries ah differ, and horsepower in Sweden is not exactly the same as in America, for example. In Europe, one horsepower refers to the power required to lift 75 kilograms one meter per second, or 75 kilogram-force meters per second (kgcm/s). At the same time, in the US, one horsepower means the power required to lift 550 pounds one foot per second, which corresponds to 33,000 pound-force feet per minute. In Russia, as a rule, horsepower means the so-called "metric horsepower", equal to exactly 735.49875 watts.


By the way, the photo at the beginning of the post is from the Library of Congress, taken around the 1890s at a logging site in Michigan.

In this way, timber was usually transported in spring and winter along a frozen path to the nearest railway or rivers. To make the movement of the sled with the load smoother, the road was watered, and the horses, as a rule, were put on special studded equipment on their hooves for better grip on the ice.

Car manufacturers from different countries measure the power of their cars in different units. For what? You will find the answer below

When reading an article about cars, be sure that you will always come across this data. With which? With car power data. The engine power of a car is one of key indicators relevant at any time, in any situation. Both from a practical and a theoretical point of view.

Watt is a unit of measure included in the SI system (International System of Units), which means how much power is required to do work in 1J per unit of time.

It is mainly used by professionals as a more “correct” power indicator from the point of view of fundamental science. As a unit of measure in the automotive industry, it is used mainly in the Southern Hemisphere, so historically.

The method of measuring power in kilowatts on cars is basically by finding the amount of torque transmitted from the wheels on the dyno, then this equation is applied to the calculations:

Kilowatts have become a modern measure of the output power of cars and perhaps in the future they will become a generally accepted world measure. At the very least, if you look at any official data offered by automakers, you will definitely see units of kW of internal combustion engine power on a par with horsepower.

What’s more, with the hype around cars with electric motors, the adoption of this form of measurement will become even more justified, since the amount of work produced by an electric motor is measured using kWh (kilowatt-hours), which determines how long the electric motor can produce a certain amount of energy. energy, for example, for the movement of a car.

Horsepower (hp)


Introduced by the "maestro" and part-time creator of productive steam engines - Mr. James Watt - this unit of power based on horsepower is somehow alive to this day, carrying the calculations of a brilliant engineer through the centuries. It is the main unit for measuring the power of cars in many countries, including Russia, and is used not only as a measure of the power of an internal combustion engine in official documents for car models, but also for calculating taxation in the automotive sector, for example, calculating transport tax.

So what is horsepower (hp)? How did it appear and how is it calculated? How was her appearance related to horses?

Scotland, inventor James Watt brought to mind his first steam device, which could help hundreds of industrialists and artisans in their everyday work. And it seems that the engine was good for everyone, but how to explain this to the townsfolk? The answer suggested itself, it was necessary to compare the work of the most common “power device” at that time (horses) with the work of a new machine. No sooner said than done, Watt sat down to the calculations.

CALCULATIONS AND COMPARISON OF UNITS OF MEASUREMENT


In most European countries, horsepower is defined as 75 kgf m/s, the power expended in uniform vertical lifting of a 75 kg load at a speed of 1 meter per second with a gravitational acceleration of 9.8 m/s.

In the International Metric System, the SI is officially measured in watts. 1 HP (metric horsepower) is equal to 735 W or 0.73 kW.

In turn, 1 kW is equal to 1.35 hp.

Moreover, in the measurement system in the United Kingdom, as well as in the USA, horsepower (horsepower, hp) is equated to 745 W, which is why there is a slight discrepancy with European "horses". Thus 1 HP in the USA is equal to 1.0138 hp. from Europe.

For example, the power of a 3.8 liter engineNissanGT-R is 570 HP, in kilowatts it will be equal to 419 , to hp 577 units.

See also:

How James Watt introduced his steam engines and the concept of "horsepower"

Now, no one knows for sure how strong the horses that participated in Watt's experiments were, whether they were in their prime or whether they were old nags. However, a few legends have survived.

According to one of them, a certain brewer, the first buyer of Watt's steam engine, probably decided to hold a competition to bring down the price of the inventor's machine. A horse in a brewery powered a water pump, and the brewer wanted to buy a steam engine instead.

In order to win for sure, an unclean industrialist chose the most strong horse and by manipulating the whip and other tools to increase productivity, he squeezed the maximum efficiency out of the poor animal. In response to the challenge, James Watt, using his machine, exceeded the work done by the horse, according to some sources, by 1.5 times, which was the adoption of a metal device that worked on water vapor as a sample.

The second legend, on the contrary, tells us that Watt himself “twisted” the calculations a little in his favor. He needed this in order to convince the intractable owners of coal mines to switch from draft horses to steam engines. In the 18th century, the coal from the mines was lifted with the help of horses with a rope through a system of blocks. After calculating the performance of an average horse, Watt applied a factor by multiplying the resulting number by 1.5, due to which his machine easily outperformed any horse that did the same work.

Since horsepower has spread significantly throughout the globe due to the simplicity of calculations and understandability for users, there have appeared different kinds(definitions) horsepower: metric horsepower, mechanical horsepower, boiler horsepower, electric horsepower And water horsepower.

Perhaps in some articles and news, both in foreign and domestic, you have often come across incomprehensible abbreviations, for example: nhp,rhp, bhp, shp, ihp, whp. What do they stand for?

Nhp orrhp,Nominalhorsepower,ratedhorsepower- useful power, used to estimate the power of steam engines.

bhp,brakehorsepower- effective power in hp, the power “removed” from the crankshaft of an internal combustion engine, does not take into account power losses from the gearbox and transmission of the car.

shp,Shafthorsepower- engine power on the shaft, this is the power supplied to the propeller shaft, to the turbine shaft or to the output shaft of an automobile gearbox. Gross

hp,Indicatedhorsepower- indicated power in hp, this is the theoretical power of a piston engine, determined by the sum of the power from the crankshaft, the effective power, and the energy spent on friction.

In our metric system, the term "horsepower" appeared thanks to the English inventor James Watt. One horsepower means power, not power. This physical quantity denotes the ratio of uniformly performed work in a certain period of time. The scientist watched the work of horses on coal spears. Animals pulled heavy baskets with coal from the mine using a block device. James Watt measured the total weight of the cargo they removed and the height to which it was raised in a certain time.

This unit of power was eventually called "horsepower" or "horsepower" in English. Further it began to be designated as "hp".

horsepower and kilowatt

In October 1960, the decision of the XI General Conference on Weights and Measures adopted the Unified International System of Units SI. At the same time, horsepower has officially become a unit of power, generally accepted throughout the world, and therefore the power of automobile engines is in these units.

1 horsepower is equal to 736 watts or 0.736 kilowatts.

And vice versa - 1 kilowatt is equal to 1.35 horsepower. Accordingly, 1 watt is equal to 0.00135 horsepower.