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Is it "ENGINE" or "MOTOR" ???

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Some time in the past I developed the idea that engines were piston driven where other power sources were motors. Steam engines, gasoline engines, diesel engines but then in the service I found that jets have engines too; don't even ask what a wankle is. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
I believe that at some past time an engine was defined by its internal generation of the energy used, while motors used energy generated externally. Thus there are steam and internal combustion engines and electric motors... but the distinction has become less clear.
 
Well, I must agree with Frank. As an electrical engineer I have always read that you have an electric motor and an internal combustion (or external combustion) engine. I have (and will continue to) always call the power plant (if I can use that word) of my Triumph the engine and the little round thing that starts it the starter motor.

I realize language (especialy English) is dynamic and ever changing, but some things just seem right one way despite popular (or vulgar - if we use the real meaning of that word) usage.
 
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I realize language (especialy English) is dynamic and ever changing, but some things just seem right one way despite popular (or vulgar - if we use the real meaning of that word) usage.

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That's all well and good, but if you were to persue that back to the original meaning of most words, you'd find your conversations to be unintelligible to anyone else. It's not a matter of right or wrong, it's simply a matter of reality. Words will and do change, no matter how fervently we may wish they wouldn't. Try reading something written in English 3-4 hundred years ago. Many words you won't even recognize, and many others have meanings that are dramatically different than they do now.

If I ask you what kind of motor you have in your car, would you tell me it's a Lucas M100 (starter motor)? I don't think so. I think you'd say it's a 2.5L inline 6 cylinder. We both understand exactly what we mean by "motor."
 
You have no argument with me on that one. I still remember the first text I had to read in grade 9 English class (back when our cars were newer). It was Beowulf. Talk about a hard read.
 
As an Englishman, the engine in my motor-car (sometimes abbreviated to "motor", though that's really a south-eastern term) drives it along the highway.
When I was a Merchant Navy officer, the engines in the Motor Vessels I sailed on, likewise propelled them across the ocean.
Trains have engines (Americans call them "locomotives" which is less confusing), though often the wheels are driven by electric motors that are powered by generators driven by diesel engines.

Of course it makes sense.
 
In some of the english magazines they call it a lump.
 
What if Tony Hulman of INDY fame first said "Gentlemen, start your motors"? Would it be fair to say "kind of whimpy"?
 
This is what happens when half of us have our motor-cars put up for the winter. We don't have any Triumph tinkering to keep us busy so we cogitate on the meaning of life (or was that engine life) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
And don't forget along the New England shore area when you have a really old motor or engine that don't work no more we refer to them as Anchors! If you got yer self a really big one it's called a mooring. Then just a little inland on some of the farms around here they call them lawn ornaments.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jester.gif
 
In some parts of the country they leave them in the car then put the car up on cinder blocks 'til they get around to working on them.
 
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Well, I must agree with Frank. As an electrical engineer I have always read that you have an electric motor and an internal combustion (or external combustion) engine. I have (and will continue to) always call the power plant (if I can use that word) of my Triumph the engine and the little round thing that starts it the starter motor.
...

[/ QUOTE ]Well, this electrical engineer had to take classes in thermodynamics and mechanics and chooses to call any device that converts energy to motion a motor. I also choose to reserve the term engine (when applied to automobiles) to mean heat engine. So to me, the propulsion unit in my LBC is both engine and motor, while the propulsion unit in an EV1 is only a motor.

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All engines are motors.

Not all motors are engines.

No motor has too much power.

Some engines pull trains.

Powerplants have smokestacks.

British motors/engines/powerplants leak oil on the garage floor.

[/ QUOTE ]I’ve seen engines used for purposes other than propulsion.

Agreed.

Agreed (but some tires have too little grip)

Agreed.

I know some former Navy submariners and an engineer who works for Edison in the shadow of the domes at San Onofre that would disagree.

Universally agreed.


PC.
 
Gentlemen, START YOUR MOTORS... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif GET OUTA HEAR /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif
 
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