Question: How do engines work?

Asked by awesomegal03 to Blaire, Elizabeth, Jenny, Shona, Simon on 12 Mar 2013.

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  1. Photo: Elizabeth StarkElizabeth Stark
    answered on 12 Mar 2013:

    The engine in your car works like this: https://www.animatedengines.com/otto.html.

    Air and fuel get sucked in and fill up the cylinder. There is a piston which slides down to make room. The piston rises back up and squeezes the air/ fuel. Just when it is compressed and under a lot of pressure there is a little tiny spark.

    The bang forces the piston down and when is swings back up, all the used fuel blows out. And round and round it goes, powered by the explosion inside each time.

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  2. Photo: Blaire DobieckiBlaire Dobiecki
    answered on 12 Mar 2013:

    Elizabeth has covered this question really well as it is easy to see with the animation 🙂

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  3. Photo: Shona MarksShona Marks
    answered on 12 Mar 2013:

    LOL, what a great animation!!

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Comments

  1. Photo: jcubo3jcubo3
    commented on 18 Mar 2013:

    The animation is really confusing :^1

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    • Photo: BlaireBlaire
      commented on 18 Mar 2013:

      Maybe you need to see a physical one – a real engine with the pistons moving. Sometimes animations can’t help everyone understand a concept.

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  2. Photo: awesomegal03awesomegal03
    commented on 18 Mar 2013:

    That’s a really descriptive animation! Thanks for answering. Was that a normal engine or a diesel or something else?

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  3. Photo: dmath56dmath56
    commented on 18 Mar 2013:

    Elizabeth that is a really awesome animation and awesome question awesomegal03

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    • Photo: ElizabethElizabeth
      commented on 18 Mar 2013:

      Yes, it’s a great site. I used to work at the Museum and one of my jobs was communicating how all the old engines worked (including the steam engines etc) and it was always very helpful

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