Terminology - Motor vs. Engine

[rbattelle]

In your opinion, what's the difference between a motor and an engine?



Some people refer to the thing under their hood as a "motor".



I've heard people refer to large electric motors as "engines".



Personally, I define them like this:

motor - a device which accepts energy input and produces work. Without external energy supply it is useless.



engine - a device which produces its own energy and converts it to mechanical work.



Any electric motor, which requires power input from an engine (ie a generator), is therefore a "motor".



Any internal combustion engine, which independently converts chemical energy to mechanical energy, is an "engine".



What do you all think? I'm certain there are other ways of looking at it. Webster seems to suggest the two terms are nearly interchangeable.



Ryan

 

[TRLRTRSH]

What if you're a red-neck NASCAR fan??

To put it simple, I was always taught a motor was electrical driven and an engine was fuel powered.

Now if you're a redneck NASCAR FAN your engine is your motor (Said with laughs of course):-laf:-laf:-laf

 

[nickleinonen]

electric, hydraulic, pneumatic = motors

diesel, gasoline, other flammable fuels = engine

it does bother me when someone calls their engine a motor, or when you hear sayings like "all motor" in racing

 

[PBJ2500CTD]

Gad-zooks, man! Does that mean we have all broken the law by driving on a roadway posted "Motorized Vehicles Only"? Let's not give the enviro-nutsies any ideas, or reason to dampen their starched and scrunched undies in all the excitement if they thought it would help force the evil global warmers off the posted roadways.

 

[rbattelle]

Gad-zooks, man! Does that mean we have all broken the law by driving on a roadway posted "Motorized Vehicles Only"?

Hilarious! That's a great point I hadn't considered.



Ryan

 

[Rattler]

I had a shop teacher in high school that would jump your butt fast if you referred to an internal combustion engine as a motor. Randy

 

[PBJ2500CTD]

I had a shop teacher in high school that would jump your butt fast if you referred to an internal combustion engine as a motor. Randy

Kinda like the "Ship/Boat" and "Rifle/Gun" terminology in the military... :-laf

 

[TRLRTRSH]

This is my rifle, this is my gun, my rifle is for killing, my gun is for FUN

 

[p-Bar]

So Detroit known as MotorCity should have been EngineCity???

 

[Bessler]

Flammable Fuels/ Jet Turbines are not Engines. Can't remember the logic, It's in the FAA Power Plant text book

 

[Matt400]

I use to subscribe to the engine = fuel and motor = electric thing then one day... dunno when I forgot all about it cuz it doesn't matter any more to me. In conversation or print it's always obvious what is being discussed.



This in in reference to calling an internal combustion engine a motor of course and I have never heard or read in print where someone has called an electric motor an engine.

 

[rbattelle]

This in in reference to calling an internal combustion engine a motor of course and I have never heard or read in print where someone has called an electric motor an engine.

I agree, this is not particularly common, but I know I've seen it done. Just can't remember where.



Ryan

 

[champspa]

An engine is a mechanical device that produces some form of output from a given input. When the purpose of an engine is to produce mechanical power from a ...
<CITE>en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine </CITE>
<CITE>Synchronous motor, an alternating current motor distinguished by a rotor spinning with coils passing magnets at the same rate as the alternating current and ...
<CITE>en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor </CITE></CITE>
<CITE><CITE></CITE></CITE>
<CITE><CITE>It doesn't make much difference to me what you call it , we will probably know exactly what your talking about on this site</CITE></CITE>

 

[kenny61]

anybody ever replace an electric window engine, or a wiper engine???

 

[AMink]

What about "motor sports"? That's how they refer to car racin' 'n' boat racin' 'n' plane racin'!



I always thought and engine is fuel and a motor is electric. So what's on an aircraft carrier? A nuclear motor? It's all so confusing!:-laf

 

[JLEONARD]

So can someone define "motor mouth"?

 

[kenny61]

Amink that would be a nuclear reactor and steam turbine .



Jim that definition would be ... My wife

 

[jwgary]

I look at it as a motor is something that converts one energy source to another by flow through it. That would work for electric, air, and hydraulic motors. An engine on the other hand involves a chemical reaction for the power output. This generally is a burning of some sort. That would cover all internal and external combustion engines. The tricky one for me is a solid rocket motor/engine. It's burning, but there are no moving parts. Maybe it's just a booster.

 

[fest3er]

I look at it as a motor is something that converts one energy source to another by flow through it. That would work for electric, air, and hydraulic motors. An engine on the other hand involves a chemical reaction for the power output. This generally is a burning of some sort. That would cover all internal and external combustion engines. The tricky one for me is a solid rocket motor/engine. It's burning, but there are no moving parts. Maybe it's just a booster.

Your description still holds. The power output of a rocket is thrust, produced by a chemical reaction. The only real difference is that once a solid rocket is ignited, it produces thrust until the fuel is gone, sort-of like a runaway diesel engine; in liquid-fuel rockets, the fuel is most often metered. A jet engine produces (mostly) thrust. Missiles (air-to-air, air-to-ground, surface-to-air, ICBM, etc. ) are propelled by thrust as well. It's been said that a rocket or missile engine is naught but a controlled explosion. If you think about it, so is the ignition of fuel in an internal combustion engine.

 

[Simplysmn]

Only thing they are saying when they say All Motor is It's not a Freaking Bottle Baby

real car's don't need a bottle to go fast