Perhaps this is a problem that education could help. If junior high school science classes teach that power is correctly measured in watts, and show how using watts simplifies many things, then perhaps some day the auto industry might be daring enough to use W and Nm with the public.
One argument for why watts are good is comparing electrical appliances to gas appliances. Electrical appliances give power in Watts. Gas give power in BTUs (yes, it should be BTU/h, but that's not what I see in stores.) Anyway, how do you compare gas appliances to electric appliances? Not easily! Quoting all specs in watts solves this problem. Understanding efficiency is another place where watts rule. If you know how many kW of electricity a motor uses and how many kW of mechanical power it produces, you can immediately see how much power is wasted. If ever we get to the point of understanding that stoves, heaters, and electric motors should all be measured in watts, then maybe, just maybe, we can also measure automobile engines in kW. John On Monday 02 February 2004 18:49, john mercer wrote: > Is the output of electric motors still given in horsepower? I have been on > some small appliance web sites and they give the power of the motors in > amps. When i was growing up in the fifty's i seem to remember that > horsepower was rated differently on gas and diesel engines between the U K > and North America. I don't know if Kilowatts would ever be excepted in > North America, because everybody uses horsepower all the time. Is the > torque output for electric motors measured in ft lbs? Is the power output > between a five horsepower electric motor and a five horsepower gas or > diesel engine the same? Thanks a lot everybody for all your help.
