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Re: English is a crazy language

Posted: 29 Feb 2012, 09:55
by sidguppy
My car's power output is still specified in horsepower.. I think I've once in my life ridden a horse.
that has baffled me for some time now, because they don't just use plain "horse power" anymore, but "break horse power".
or is it "brake horse power"?

and to make things worse; it's not evemn equal to a 'real' horsepower at all....

so what did they do? did they break the horse in 2 or more parts (break horse power)/ is it less then 1 true horse power or more?

or is it applied to calculate to the amount of force needed to the 'brakes' of a horse (brake horse power)?
a horse doesn't have visible 'brakes', but anyone who ever ridden one, knows the biggest brake on a horse is between its' ears: the lazier the horse, the bigger its' brakes ;)

at least a few decades ago they used plain old 'horsepower'.
a very famous small French car even owns up to that; the 2CV.
that stands for 'Deux Cheveaux' which literally means '2 horses'.
the amount of power put out by the first models' engine.

Anglo-saxons are beyond weird with their English language!

pretty soon it'll get so inconcievable that we will not be able to understand each other.....
Image
or is it incomprehensible?
:))

Re: English is a crazy language

Posted: 29 Feb 2012, 10:45
by MatsP
sidguppy wrote:
My car's power output is still specified in horsepower.. I think I've once in my life ridden a horse.
that has baffled me for some time now, because they don't just use plain "horse power" anymore, but "break horse power".
or is it "brake horse power"?
Brake Horse Power is just how you measure it - a De Prony Brake - there are several other variants.

--
Mats