Horsepower is a unit of measurement. There's hp and bhp and hpE and...

"Other names for the metric horsepower are the Italian cavallo vapore (cv), Dutch paardenkracht (pk), the French cheval-vapeur (ch), the Spanish caballo de vapor and Portuguese cavalo-vapor (cv), the Russian лошадиная сила (л. с.), the Swedish hästkraft (hk), the Finnish hevosvoima (hv), the Estonian hobujõud (hj), the Norwegian and Danish hestekraft (hk), the Hungarian lóerő (LE), the Czech koňská síla and Slovak konská sila (k or ks), the Serbo-Croatian konjska snaga (KS), the Bulgarian конска сила, the Macedonian коњска сила (KC), the Polish koń mechaniczny (KM) (lit. 'mechanical horse'), Slovenian konjska moč (KM), the Ukrainian кінська сила (к. с.), the Romanian cal-putere (CP), and the German Pferdestärke (PS)." [1]

Decibel is not a unit of measurement. Decibels are a relative measurement. It tells you how much louder or powerful something is relative to something else. And frankly far less ridiculous than horsepower, which has a hilarious Wiki article if you read it with a critical mindset.

Deriving some of the constants without Googling is a fun exercise to verify that you're not as smart as you think you are. "Hydraulic horsepower = pressure (pounds per square inch) * flow rate (gallons per minute) / 1714"

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsepower

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thaumasiotes 7 months ago | parent | next [-]

> "Other names for the metric horsepower are [...]"

I'm not clear on what point you think you're making. Is it interesting that the same thing might have different names in different languages?

That subsection of the article, by the way, is obviously lying:

> The various units used to indicate this definition (PS, KM, cv, hk, pk, k, ks and ch) all translate to horse power in English.

cv and ch translate to steam horse, which isn't hard to see even if you only speak English. What does "vapor" mean to you?

The opening of the article does suggest some problems, though not problems that wouldn't apply to the word "ounce". But you seem to have pulled an extended quote describing a completely expected state of affairs, while ignoring this:

> There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the imperial horsepower as in "hp" or "bhp" which is about 745.7 watts, and the metric horsepower as in "cv" or "PS" which is approximately 735.5 watts. The electric horsepower "hpE" is exactly 746 watts, while the boiler horsepower is 9809.5 or 9811 watts, depending on the exact year.

I don't get it.

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badlibrarian 7 months ago | parent [-]

That a unit of power has a dozen metric abbreviations and converts to watts at different values depending on what it is measuring (and when) is precisely the point.

Decibels aren't ridicluous or a unit of measure. Horsepower, however...

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thaumasiotes 7 months ago | parent [-]

> That a unit of power has a dozen metric abbreviations and converts to watts at different values depending on what it is measuring (and when) is precisely the point.

How is that point illustrated by an extended digression on the words for the unit in various different languages?

	▲	badlibrarian 7 months ago \| parent [-]
		The "extended digression" (single sentence) is a quote that shows the dozen metric abbreviations. A link to the source was provided, with a suggestion to read it in a critical context. And it worked: it taught you to fish. And you promptly quoted the first screenful of text from the link. Let's call this a win-win and move on, shall we?

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marcosdumay 7 months ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes, those are the reasons why nobody uses horsepower in an engineering context.

	▲	badlibrarian 7 months ago \| parent [-]
		I suppose if you don't count the engineers who work on engines. Or those expensive dynos that use the big font to report horsepower then plot it on the chart along with torque.