Yes, the caballo is the stupid horsepower, only it is the European variety, of 75 kgm/s or 736 W, 9 W less than the US/UK animal. Although this travesty of a measuring units has been outlawed from 1978 it is indestructible. What makes it so, is beyond me. Is a unit the more durable, the more stupid and irrational it is? Caballo, cavallo vapore, cheval vapeur, Pferdestaerke, paardenkracht, all names in different languages for the same animal, the continental horsepower, that should really be sent to the knackers yard!
Han ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harry Wyeth" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, 2002-11-19 13:02 Subject: [USMA:23488] Caballos > An afterthought from my trip to Spain, which I forgot to mention in my last > message: I was talking to a friend about his new Audi diesel car (diesel > Audis are not available in the US), which he bought because of the superior > power and fuel economy. He volunteered that his new wheels has so-and-so > "caballos". > > For those of us not living next a Spanish-speaking country, this seems to > be continental Spanish for US-style horsepower. Same in the rest of Europe? > > HARRY WYETH > >
