[OPE-L:2035] Re: Units of measure

From: clyder (wpc@dcs.gla.ac.uk)
Date: Wed Jan 05 2000 - 11:12:00 EST


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> > How do you measure the power of an engine? Horse-power, right? Yet, an
> > engine is by no means composed of the same substance as a horse.
> >
> > Yeah, I know, that's probably not a good example.
>
> Horses are flesh and blood and engines are metal, but they also have
> one common substance, namely the ability to perform work (in the
mechanical
> sense) measured by time, mass and distance (if I recall correctly).

Watt introduced a purely notional horse into the measurement. He posited a
horse
able to lift 3390lbs through a distance of 1 foot in a minute.



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