It would be interesting to see the same set up but with both a human and horse.

If you say so. The performance profiles of both species have been studied in great detail. There’s no need to run more experiments.

 

It would be interesting to see the same set up but with both a human and horse.

There's been a LOT of stuff published on this kind of comparison as well as many, many others. As with humans, horses vary a great deal. Also, there is a huge difference between peak and sustainable power delivery. Also, the "one horsepower" definition is not peak output of a typical horse, but rather the sustainable output of draft animals over the course of a typical shift (something like four hours).

A broad rule of thumb is that animal-powered labor (talking vertebrates here) can be sustained at about four times the basal metabolic rate and that peak output is commonly ten to fifteen times that. Humans, however, are closer to a factor of one -- our sustainable work effort is roughly comparable to our basal metabolic rate. I'm guessing that a couple of the factors at play here is that we don't have nice fur coats and so burn more fuel to maintain our body temperature and also that we need to support a disproportionately large and active brain (but I think that keeping warm is probably the big one).

 

@WBahn thanks for totally informative post! I always thought horsepower was just capriciously assigned to 33k ft-lbs/Min (so 550 ft-lbs/s) which seemed way beyond ability of any breed except maybe Clydesdale (so like you are saying huge draught horse). So it's totally interesting that it's not arbitrary unit after all! Now I'm saying even though 1 horsepower isn't vry much power from machinery it's still amazing any horse can perform that much work for four hours!

but I think that keeping warm is probably the big one).

Wbahn you are totally correct! Human (IDK for sure abt equine) BMR (which is mostly maintenance of body temp) is like 78% of caloric consumption at room temp! So it's price we pay for being homeotherms along with constant threat of starvation! But I say mobility in low temps makes it fair trade!

 

Human (IDK for sure abt equine) BMR (which is mostly maintenance of body temp) is like 78% of caloric consumption at room temp!

I don't think it's that high. Take a look here:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet...-30-minutes-of-leisure-and-routine-activities
It says that a 185 lb person can sit and read while using only about 100 calories per hour. Sleeping takes only 56 per hour. Both these activities are done at room temperature.

I wish I could lose weight by just sitting in a cold room, but it doesn't seem to work.

 

... capriciously assigned to 33k ft-lbs/Min (so 550 ft-lbs/s)

Really. Wouldn´t BTUs per peek be more comfortable units? Or ounce-barleycorns per fortnight? I was allways wondering, with that retarded rollercoaster of imperial units
http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/united-states-vs-the-rest-of-the-world.jpg why didn´t you guys come up with some kind of imperial fish-related amperes and corn-related volts

 

Really. Wouldn´t BTUs per peek be more comfortable units? Or ounce-barleycorns per fortnight? I was allways wondering, with that retarded rollercoaster of imperial units
http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/united-states-vs-the-rest-of-the-world.jpg why didn´t you guys come up with some kind of imperial fish-related amperes and corn-related volts

Or the king's feet as a unit to measure the smell of matured cheese...

 

I wish I could lose weight by just sitting in a cold room, but it doesn't seem to work.

Wayneh I say you'd reduce faster than in warm room but then you'd be hungry and cold!

Really. Wouldn´t BTUs per peek be more comfortable units? Or ounce-barleycorns per fortnight? I was allways wondering, with that retarded rollercoaster of imperial units
http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/united-states-vs-the-rest-of-the-world.jpg why didn´t you guys come up with some kind of imperial fish-related amperes and corn-related volts

Or the king's feet as a unit to measure the smell of matured cheese...

Kubeek and Cmartinez if you want to see super unit cluster@#$% I say check out pressure/vac units and also magnetic quantities and units!

 

No, really, it amazes me that imperial volts and the rest-of-the-world volts are acutally the same thing and that there are not two different sets.
Even more seriously though, I would really like to know the history behind Volts and Amps (watts) getting their relation aligned to other metric units (joule-seconds), and not joule being one foot-pound or something, when a lot of the top-tier guys were English in that time of circa 1800.
Did the French have such big influence with their metricization, or how did the system we use now gain the footing?

 

Did the French have such big influence with their metricization, or how did the system we use now gain the footing?

Yup... it was mainly Napoleon's work that immortalized the metric system. But he went further, and tried to supplant 7 day weeks with 10 day periods... and at that, he failed miserably, thank God

 

Or the king's feet as a unit to measure the smell of matured cheese...

Assigning cheese stink the same units of measurements as inductance would be terribly confusing...

 

After thousands of years of normal hours and minuts and seconds no one is going to go for metric time. But it still makes me wonder if napolens contemporaries like james watt were so eager to go with metric untis, or if this is just a "tribute" by the next generations that settled those quantities to fit in the metric system and named them to honor the famous guys.

 

Assigning cheese stink the same units of measurements as inductance would be terribly confusing...

* slap in the forehead * ... darn! , I had forgotten that His Majesty's feet were already taken!

 

After thousands of years of normal hours and minuts and seconds no one is going to go for metric time. But it still makes me wonder if napolens contemporaries like james watt were so eager to go with metric untis, or if this is just a "tribute" by the next generations that settled those quantities to fit in the metric system and named them to honor the famous guys.

More than promoting the use of "metric" stuff, what they did was promote decimal concepts...

 

Yup... it was mainly Napoleon's work that immortalized the metric system. But he went further, and tried to supplant 7 day weeks with 10 day periods... and at that, he failed miserably, thank God

Cmartinez don't forget 10 hr days!

Anyhow I say systems of measure should be based on natural phenomena/relationships instead of just arbitrary convenience! So for example degrees are convenient cuz 360 has a lot of factors but radians are totally intuitive and easier to work with cuz natural!

Now for example statue mile is based on 1000 human strides which is totally inexact and pretty lame but I say basing system of linear measure on segment of meridian running through Paris is even more daft So for example light nanoseconds would make excellent natural basis even though it has effrontery of being basically equal to 1 foot

 

...

The basic unit can be as daft as you please and based on whatever natural phenomena you choose, and no one will have an issue with that. Metric is based on the exact same thing, and it has no real relation to anything (not counting the arbitrary explanations) But the related units, multiples like how many foot to a yard, inches to a foot, and most importantly PITA fractional inches, that is what breaks the imperial system.
(btw how do the USAmercans feel about calling the units threads and all that imperial when there is no emperor anymore? I know they now call it the standard as opposed to metric but still it is silly...)
Also Aleph0, may I assume that you are not an average Polish girl after all?

 

for example light nanoseconds would make excellent natural basis

It would today... but not back in the early 19th century... As science progresses, our system of units become referenced to better foundations

http://galactica.wikia.com/wiki/Battlestar_Galactica_terminology​

Measurements...

• Centar - an hour of Colonial time.
• Centon - a minute of Colonial time.
• Metric - a Colonial meter.
• Metron - another name for metric.
• Microncenton - another name for micron.
• Micron - one hundredth of a centon.
• Radion - a Colonial unit of radiation.
• Sectar - a month of Colonial time.
• Secton - a week of Colonial time.
• Volton - Colonial unit of voltage.
• Yahren - a year of Colonial time.

 

and most importantly PITA fractional inches, that is what breaks the imperial system.

Kubeek +1000! (by which I mean factorial of 1000)!

Kubeek FWIW I like SI units/convention way better than just so called metric! But o/c that doesn't really apply to just weight (mass) and common units of linear measure, area, volume and like that.

Aleph0, may I assume that you are not an average Polish girl after all?

Going by appearances I'm average Pole according to my avatar which is closest match I could find to my real piccy! But I say personality-wise I'm more like old calculator so Reverse Polish Numpty

 

It would today... but not back in the early 19th century... As science progresses, our system of units become referenced to better foundations

http://galactica.wikia.com/wiki/Battlestar_Galactica_terminology​

Ewwwe! BSG! Now I definitely like old TV and flicks but Ben Cartwright and dude named after coffee bar in space is just more than I can stomach!

 

I'm probably the only person in the country who's never seen even one episode of Battlestar Galactica. In fact, the last time I watched any prime time TV, Taxi was in its first season. That was around the time @Aleph(0)'s mother was born, wasn't it?

 

Ewwwe! BSG! Now I definitely like old TV and flicks but Ben Cartwright and dude named after coffee bar in space is just more than I can stomach!

Yeah? Then you'd want a handful of phenothiazines watching the remake!