Feb 20, 2022 10:00:00

Why did the word 'horsepower' spread?

When you look up the specs to buy a car, the notation you come across is '

horsepower '. As the name implies, horsepower is a unit derived from the power that one horse can exert, but it continues to be used even in the present age when horses are rarely seen, apart from the times when horses were widely used as livestock for riding and farming. increase. Live Science, a science news site, explains why the word horsepower has become so widely used.

Why do we still measure things in horsepower? | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/what-is-horsepower

The word horsepower was coined by the Scottish inventor James Watt , the origin of the power unit 'Watt (W)' in the International System of Units. When Watt invented the steam engine in 1765, he thought it was necessary to quantify the amount of work per unit time. Watt focused on horses, and Watt was 'average' from his personal observations that 'the average horse can pull a horse's stone mill at a pace of 144 revolutions per hour.' The weight of a horse that can be lifted by one foot in one minute is 32,572 pounds (the weight that can be moved by one meter in one minute is about 14,774.41 kg). ' He rounded off 32,572 pounds to 33,000 pounds (about 14,968.55 kg), and defined 'the amount of work that can lift 33,000 pounds by 1 meter in one minute' as 1 horsepower.

By Martinvl

Watt is said to have roughly estimated various numerical values for the definition of horsepower, and the unit of 'horsepower' cannot be said to have been defined after proper scientific discussion. Also, since I used the unit of horsepower that I decided to show the superiority of the steam engine that I developed, it can be said that I created the concept of 'horse work' for the marketing campaign.

Eric Lacy, a senior lecturer in the English department at the University of Winchester, England, explains the word horsepower from a linguistic point of view. According to Lacy, when considering why ambiguous terms such as horsepower are used over time, the two words people use are 'the person himself' and 'the person's interaction with others.' The element will affect it.

People tend to avoid words that basically have problematic or negative meanings and prefer words that have new meanings or pronunciations that are cool. In the early 19th century, when the word horsepower became widespread, horsepower was the most popular industrial power source, and the new concept of horsepower pointed to the old and commonplace, and at the same time, it gave a hint of the arrival of new things to the masses. Lacy said it would have become widespread enough to be used.

However, this view is a hypothesis constructed by Mr. Lacy, so it may be far from the truth. In this regard, Lacy commented, 'If you can accurately predict which words will remain in people's minds, you will make a lot of money in the advertising industry! This is the Holy Grail of Linguistics.'

By the way, as mentioned above, horsepower is the power that one horse can continuously exert, and it is said that the power that a horse can exert instantaneously is about 15 horsepower. On the other hand, humans can output 1.2 horsepower for 15 seconds and 0.9 horsepower for 1 minute if they are cyclists participating in the Tour de France. From this point, regarding the opinion that 'should the word horsepower be replaced with human power?', Mr. Lacy commented, 'It is very satisfying as a linguist because it makes it easier to understand what the unit actually points to.' increase.