system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What exactly is "horsepower"? Is it literally the power of one horse? How is it measured?
gpt
One horsepower was originally defined as the rate at which a horse could comfortably perform work all day long. One horsepower is equivalent 550 foot-pounds of work per second. This is the power required to lift a 550-pound weight over a distance of one foot in one second (or 1,100 pounds 1 foot in 2 seconds, or 275 pounds 2 feet in 1 second, etc.).
But remember that is just the unit of measure. A horse can output a lot more than one horsepower for a brief time when it really exerts itself.