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Watch this video on the four stages of grief for mechanics

You’ve likely heard of the psychological model called the five stages of grief. It’s used to describe the various emotions people might experience when dealing with a significant loss, and the the five stages of grief are commonly defined as denial, anger, bargaining,...

The first step I now take in vehicle diagnostics

The following four vehicles (which certainly are varied) all came to me for repair and I did not identify the root of their problems immediately. And that’s because I was staying stuck in my ways and not adapting to changing vehicles. Let’s examine. Situation One: A...

PSA: Stop throwing away brake rotor screws

Hello. My name is Lemmy, and I am guilty of throwing away brake rotor screws. At least I was guilty. I no longer commit this sin. You know the pieces I’m talking about. They’re the little screws with the huge heads that get boogered up when you try to remove them...

Best of Shop Press 2024

As 2024 draws to a close, the Shop Press team assembled some of the most notable articles, videos, and more of the year. Our goal all along has been to provide a unique voice on a mix of topics that speaks to mechanics and the mechanically inclined like no other...

Watch how magnetizer/demagnetizer tools work in this excellent video

During some recent work on an older SUV, I was absolutely fed up. I couldn’t take it anymore. I had just finished a fair bit of grinding and filing, and when I reached for my screwdriver to start installing some parts, I saw that the tool’s tip looked like the Wooly...

Tool review: Klein 3255 bull pin

Disclaimer: I purchased this tool at full retail price at my own expense, with no compensation to write about the item. Most mechanics I know value tools that have either of the following characteristics: Useful, but from another industry (because it might be useful...

What does horsepower really mean? (VIDEO)

by | Dec 17, 2024

Horsepower is a strange measurement, isn’t it? Think about it. When was the last time you used a horse for any kind of work or travel?

Like candlepower, the original horsepower attempted to express the output of a newer technology in comparison to its predecessor. Today, horsepower is one of the most common metrics we use to quantify vehicle performance, yet most of us in the auto repair industry have no experience with real horses at all. And even if we did, how would we meaningfully measure the work potential of a horse? How might that measurement of power translate to mechanical devices?

Thankfully, a clever guy named James Watt did the math for us over 240 years ago while developing steam engines that would kickstart the Industrial Revolution. This old Chevrolet video from 1937 does a fine job of explaining Watt’s journey to the earliest version of the horsepower measurement we know today. (The informational part of this video starts about two minutes in.)

Later advancements in power measurement made Watt’s horsepower obsolete with new variations like metric horsepower and imperial (mechanical) horsepower, but it is fitting that the International System of Units (SI) uses the watt as its standard for the same type of power measurement today.

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