4 ms·
For some reason, we all know the right order of magnitude for a car in horsepower. But most don't know that 1hp is roughly 750w. It's odd because we all know
by mhandley 7y ago
For some reason, we all know the right order of magnitude for a car in horsepower. But most don't know that 1hp is roughly 750w. It's odd because we all know roughly the power rating of a microwave or a lightbulb or a kettle. Amazing how use of one obsolete unit can totally mess up having a unified mental model for power.
- heavenlyblue 7y agoAll of the cars in my country are rated in KW in the documents. But frankly it’s hard to tell how much power the car is immediately using right now.
- leetcrew 7y agoyeah unless you have one of those cars that actually tells you the current output, it's pretty hard to estimate. to be even close to correct, you have to know the whole power curve and understand how the throttle is mapped (usually not linear). turbos add another confounding factor.
- perl4ever 7y ago"Totally mess up" is exaggerated. I know that 1 hp is "roughly" 1 kw.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- a9h74j 7y agoSpeaking of having a lack of a unified mental model for power , when it comes to the closely-related problem of energy (for society) there are a dozen or more commonly-used units in use, extending to "a cubic mile of oil". I believe that partly as a result of this (and partly due to the magnitudes involved), even those who follow the literature can have a lack of intuition when reading different papers and articles. And that has consequences, e.g., how many MW-GW capacity replacement per day for an energy transition.