[Coheed]

Originally Posted by d1ck

I'm sorry coheed but you're wrong. horsepower is simply a unit of measurement of power just like watts. (1 horsepower = 746 watts). Power is measured by using work / time, or (force x distance) / time. The amount of work to accelerate a mass on earth is proportional to the following:
object mass & change in velocity
Object mass & change in height relative to gravity
Spring rate & change in spring length (only for when you're compressing a spring)
Non conservative losses (due to friction) (and radiation I think)
There's also some for heat if I remember correctly


Just to demonstrate why you're wrong lets do a simple calculation with your theory:
Your theory: 550 lb-m @ 1 ft/s = 1 HP
lets use the FRS travelling at 60 mi/h on a vertical road and see how much HP that would require

(2900/550) x (88 fps) = 464 HP

Wow! That's a lot of horsepower just to travel at 60 mi/h!



I apologize that I missed this in your most recent post, and that is in fact correct. The unit of HP was created with this in mind, however, it's still just simple newtonian physics at play here and not as complicated as you previously suggested.

fixed. and moved to pm