# HP or Watts

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-or-watts/366247>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 27, 2006, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-or-watts/366247 "2006-07-27T12:07:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-or-watts/366247/1 "2006-07-27T12:07:46Z")

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If I ask a Frenchman, or any other European for that matter, how much power he’s got under the hood, am I going to get the answer in horses or watts ?

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-or-watts/366247/2 "2006-07-27T12:25:21Z")

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> [@The Flying Dutchman](#):
>
> If I ask a Frenchman, or any other European for that matter, how much power he’s got under the hood, am I going to get the answer in horses or watts ?

[Looks like this european review uses horsepower](http://new.minimania.com/web/SCatagory/Reviews/DisplayType/News/DisplayID/1633/ArticleV.cfm)

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**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-or-watts/366247/3 "2006-07-27T12:29:36Z")

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You’ll often see the abbreviation PS - _Pferde Starke_ - German for “horse power”. It’s roughly similar to the imperial horsepower.

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**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-or-watts/366247/4 "2006-07-27T12:32:50Z")

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In Germany Watt are used for official purposes but when talking about cars almost everybody still uses HP (“PS”) informally. However our HP is defined in a slightly different, metric-derived way. It’s the power required to lift a mass of 75 kg with a speed of 1 m/s at normal gravity. That’s about 735.5 W.

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**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2006, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hp-or-watts/366247/5 "2006-07-27T12:53:02Z")

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In Germany, as **kellner** said, for commercial/official purposes kW but informally mostly horsepower (in ads etc. the kW rating must come first and the HP number in brackets only).

I suspect that HP (PS in German) are hanging on much longer in common usage than other non-SI units because the power expressed in HP happens to be a higher number and both manufacturers and car owners prefer the higher number as being more bragworthy.