How Much Horsepower is a Horse?

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We solved a 250 year old mystery and found out the true horsepower of a horse.

Check out Adam Savage’s channel, TESTED, here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJtitKU0CAeiQ5U2Otzlggk3MeKkdQk_i

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46 thoughts on “How Much Horsepower is a Horse?”

  8. Even if you screw something up it's pretty cool to have scientists and researchers write their own papers and articles discussing how to better analyze the data, convert or design the experiment. Donut Media will know have scientists discussing their work. Check out how many citations you get. It'd be a fun student project to analyze or apply the information and data if you make it all public.

    Now that there is finally an official horse-dynamometer coupler design on the market with published results anyone can do similar and compare and maybe compete, hopefully safely.

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  15. I guess you guys pretty much have a guaranteed follow up video idea of just responding and maybe carrying out the recommendations everyone makes. I have no idea how much that would cost. People in the comments don't seem to realize that this was done as simply and cheaply as possible, mainly making the test and shoot as quick and efficient as possible by only going for the simplest and surefire (least risky) type of significant data points in the context of a single comparison case of engine vs horse in a car flooring it off the line. Enough to get a video and just barely enough to publish a paper saying we did a thing and then maybe they'll add to it by discussing different problems or issues or situations so that the experiment isn't the really the meat of the paper.

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  18. You guys don't understand what you guys have done, from this video onwards, every debate, research, study about HP will come to this video.
    And No Spoilers everyone, let everyone see the whole video.

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  20. Can we assume that an adjustment factor was applied for the rope layers on the spool? That’s literally a gearing change as the rope pays out, and will affect the end result.

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  22. very cool project!! I have thought about the value of one horse power for years and finally we have it. ( we all knew it was BS) holy cow that Cuda only makes (800 hp / 5.7) 140- Big D horse power. of course 800 sure sounds better😜

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  24. so we know now that that one specific horse can produce said horsepower, but that is not a good number for an average horse. I ran across a site that says a human can produce between 0.9 to 2.7 hp, but you guys together only got to 1.9, makes me really doubt that one can do 2.7 but surely one of the strong guys from say, world's strongest man, could do even more.

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  25. That was entertaining for sure) But as much science as Horse Power definition itself) First of all, that wasn't average horse, and to be statistically correct, you'd had to bring a lot of horses and calc average of their power. Then, 5.7HP is a MAX what Big D did, not average. On average, according to a chart it will be hanging somewhere around 3 HP (I'm counting on the "normal drive" section of the test road, when horse wasn't accelerating or slowing down), still > 1 HP though)
    Also, it means that, f.e. tesla plaid isn't 1020HP, but actually is 340 real horses 🙂 and so on

    Anyway, thanks, that was fun!

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  26. As with all measurement units, horsepower is arbitrary. Its objective in the sense that its the same arbitrary unit we use for comparing one engine to another. So I would not be surprised to learn one horse can do more than one horsepower. This is an awsome idea to really test it.

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  28. OK well that means that your math is 4.7 HP off. Because hello McFly you have one horse doing all the work. So all you scientists and physicist need to back up and look at the bigger picture because if you actually think that one unit equals 5.7 units of anything then maybe you need to take up another hobby like flower arrangement or something. But what you did show us is how far off the initial calculations of horsepower is. Now we know that one real horse is equal to 5.7 hp. My 85 El Camino clocked in at 222.3 hp so we divide that by 5.7 and we get 39 real horses🛻🪢🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎

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  33. This is an awesome episode. Im sure the tech has come a long way since the original HP calculation to reduce the frictions. However this is amazing. BTW the new gentleman agreement is 280/5.7 = 50HP

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