Home > Term: engine
engine
A machine designed for the conversion of energy into useful mechanical motion. The principal characteristic of an engine is its capacity to deliver appreciable mechanical power, as contrasted to a mechanism such as a clock, whose significant output is motion. By usage an engine is usually a machine that burns or otherwise consumes a fuel, as differentiated from an electric machine that produces mechanical power without altering the composition of matter. Similarly, a spring-driven mechanism is said to be powered by a spring motor; a flywheel acts as an inertia motor. By definition a hydraulic turbine is not an engine, although it competes with the engine as a prime source of mechanical power.
- Kalbos dalis: noun
- Pramonės šaka / sritis: Science
- Category: General science
- Company: McGraw-Hill
0
Kūrėjas
- Francisb
- 100% positive feedback