Power

I set my work colleague and fellow blipper Jason a photo challenge a little while back, as he was seeking some ideas for inspiration. I put together 30 days worth of ideas. Jason was keen to crack on and he started before the start of June (who says these things have to follow the calendar). I thought I would dip in and out as inspiration and photo opportunities required.

So the 4th idea was Power - something that has or uses power, that creates power or is powerful

So what defines power? These days its the Watt, named after James Watt. The Scottish inventor and innovator who made the steam engine a useful proposition. Those of us a little older are perhaps a little more familiar with the term horsepower.

It was through this invention that the horsepower term came about. Watt determined that a horse could turn a mill wheel 144 times in an hour (or 2.4 times a minute). The wheel was 12 feet in radius; therefore, the horse travelled 12 feet in one minute. Watt judged that the horse could pull with a force of 180 pounds. This was calculated, and then rounded out at 33,000 ft·lbf/min

In 1993, R. D. Stevenson and R. J. Wassersug published an article calculating the upper limit to an animal's power output. The peak power over a few seconds has been measured to be as high as 14.9 hp. However, they observed that for sustained activity, a work rate of about 1 hp per horse.

So there you have my take on power.