Engine

Engine

An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert energy into useful mechanical motion. Heat engines, including internal combustion engines and external combustion engines (such as steam engines) burn a fuel to create heat which is then used to create motion. Electric motors convert electrical energy into mechanical motion, pneumatic motors use compressed air and others, such as clockwork motors in wind-up toys use elastic energy. In biological systems, molecular motors like myosins in muscles use chemical energy to create motion.

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Famous quotes containing the word engine:

    The will is never free—it is always attached to an object, a purpose. It is simply the engine in the car—it can’t steer.
    Joyce Cary (1888–1957)

    The machine unmakes the man. Now that the machine is perfect, the engineer is nobody. Every new step in improving the engine restricts one more act of the engineer,—unteaches him.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)