Why is it brake horsepower?

The horsepower rating of an engine is usually measured on a dynamometer, which is a form of mechanical brake used to apply variable loads to a running engine so that torque and power may be calculated at different engine revs – hence brake horsepower (which is always quoted at a given RPM).
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Why it is called brake horsepower?

Since the power delivered by engine is calculated by applying brakes, it is popularly called has brake horsepower.
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Are BHP and HP the same?

BHP stands for 'brake horsepower' while HP stands for 'horse power. ' The difference between the two is in relation to measurement. BHP is a measure of the actual horsepower the car has at it's wheels while HP is the amount of horsepower that exists in the engine.
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How do you explain brake horsepower?

Brake horsepower or bhp refers to the horsepower of the car after taking into consideration friction between a car's tyres and the road. In other words, brake horsepower accounts for the power loss due to friction, which is why brake horsepower is always less than a car's horsepower.
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What does 5 brake horsepower mean?

Brake horsepower is the horsepower of an engine measured by the degree of resistance offered by a brake, that represents the useful power that the machine can develop. For an electric motor, brake horsepower is the mechanical horsepower available at the shaft at specified rpm and full load current.
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What's the difference between BHP, HP and PS? - Mike's Mechanics



Is higher brake horsepower better?

While hp does not take into account frictional losses in power from an engine, brake horsepower does — meaning hp is always higher than bhp. The difference between the two is small on a 1:1 basis.
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What does 75 PS mean in cars?

Some car manufacturers still quote a power output rating called PS, which stands for Pferdestrke (literally, 'horse strength'). It's alternatively known as DIN (Deutsches Institut fr Normung ) hp as opposed to SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) bhp.
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Which is better BHP or torque?

To keep it short and sweet, BHP affects the top speed and acceleration of a car while torque affects the amount of load you can carry without performance degradation.
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Does torque make a car faster?

In terms of acceleration, torque plays a bigger role in how quickly your car accelerates. That's because the torque is a result of the force the pistons generate and at what speed. The quickest vehicles can generate high levels of this torque force at relatively low rpm. This allows the vehicle to accelerate quickly.
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What is better to have torque or horsepower?

Horsepower is a good indicator of overall power but the torque can tell you a little bit more about what the car is capable of. It's worth bearing in mind, though, that the higher number doesn't always mean more towing capacity, acceleration, or speed. The weight of the vehicle plays a huge part in its abilities.
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Is 170 horsepower good?

Right between 200 and 300 is a good amount of horsepower for a car. Many base models from some brands offer between 100 and 200 horsepower, suitable for drivers who do not mind a more relaxed driving experience in exchange for a better economy.
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What does PS mean in a car?

PS or PferdStarke is the metric measure of horsepower. It is the equivalent of 98.6% of one HP.
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Why does a horse have 15 horsepower?

While it is true that the maximum output of a horse is around 15 horsepower, when you average the output of a horse over the course of a work day it ends up being around a horsepower. Watt defined this amount as "the amount of work required from a horse to pull 150 pounds out of a hole that was 220 feet deep".
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Does a horse have 1 horsepower?

Does one horsepower equal one horse? Not quite. It's a common misconception that one horsepower is equal to the peak power production of a horse, which is capable of a maximum of around 14.9 horsepower. By comparison, a human being is capable of approximately five horsepower at peak power production.
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Are horses based on horsepower?

Calculating the Power of a Single Horse

Each horse pushed with a force that Watt estimated at 180 pounds. From this, Watt calculated that one horsepower was equivalent to one horse doing 33,000 foot-pounds of work in one minute.
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Does higher rpm mean faster?

RPM stands for "revolutions per minute." It's a measure of how fast the engine is spinning. In general, the faster an engine spins, the more power it makes. For any gear given, more RPMs, the faster the car goes.
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Is torque good for going uphill?

Yes. Hill climbing ability is directly and only related to torque. The speed you will go up is a mixture of volts and amps. But climbing really only comes down to amps which means torque.
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Why do electric cars have low top speed?

This is because most manufacturers of electric cars limit the top speed to preserve battery charge. Aerodynamic drag increases significantly as speed rises and hence battery power is consumed more rapidly when a high cruising speed is maintained.
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Can a car with less horsepower be faster?

In physics, power is defined as the rate at which something does work. For cars, horsepower translates into speed. So if you want to go faster, and get up to speed quicker, you need more horsepower.
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What does cc in a car mean?

Engine size is the volume of fuel and air that can be pushed through a car's cylinders and is measured in cubic centimetres (cc). Car engine sizes are normally specified in litres, which is rounded up to the nearest tenth of a litre. For example, a car that has a 1390cc engine would be described as a 1.4 litre.
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Is BHP same as WHP?

Wheel Horse Power

Unlike bhp, whp is the power output measured at the wheels. This is the information a dyno run provides and usually reads around *15 per cent less than the power measured at the engine (bhp) - this is because power is lost in the driveline (including clutch and transmission).
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What is rpm car?

RPM stands for revolutions per minute, and it's used as a measure of how fast any machine is operating at a given time. In cars, rpm measures how many times the engine's crankshaft makes one full rotation every minute, and along with it, how many times each piston goes up and down in its cylinder.
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Which is more important cc or BHP?

Bhp of a engine tells how much work it can do while the torque is the deciding factor in how fast it can do it. CC or the engine capacity doesn't really matter much with tech like turbo charging and supercharging, even a turbo charged v8 can belt out as much power as a naturally aspirated v12 .
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Is 100bhp a lot?

But is 100bhp a lot ? certainly not, but that's a different matter entirely given the starting point. 100bhp is not a lot in absolute terms these days, the Polo GTi has almost 190bhp. Torque counts more than Bhp, especially from a diesel and you can't compare a diesel car with petrol on Bhp alone very well....
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