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Engine Facts & Worksheets

An engine is a device that uses fuel to produce mechanical energy, which in turn can be used to generate motion.

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An engine is a device that uses fuel to produce mechanical energy, which in turn can be used to generate motion. Motor vehicle engines, for example, are adaptable and can use a wide range of fuels, including gasoline and diesel. In thermodynamics, machines are commonly referred to as heat engines since they produce macroscopic motion from heat produced by fuel burning in the engine.

See the fact file below for more information on Engines, or you can download our 28-page Engine worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

DESCRIPTION

  • An engine is a machine that uses one or more energy sources to generate mechanical energy. Potential energy, thermal energy, chemical energy, electric potential, and nuclear energy are all examples of the various energy sources at our disposal. These processes often produce heat as an intermediate energy type, making heat engines particularly useful. Atmospheric convection cells are just one natural process that takes heat from the environment and turns it into motion. 
  • Transportation relies heavily on mechanical energy, but other industrial operations like cutting, grinding, crushing, and mixing also benefit. Thermodynamic techniques are used in mechanical heat engines to transform heat into work. The internal combustion engine is the most familiar example of an automatic heat engine. 
  • The expansion of gaseous combustion products heated by fuel combustion drives a piston, which spins a crankshaft. A jet engine is an example of a reaction engine, which, following Newton’s third law of motion, generates thrust by expelling reaction mass rather than by burning fuel.
  • Other than heat engines, machines that can transform energy into mechanical motion include electric motors, pneumatic motors that use compressed air, and clockwork motors in wind-up toys that employ elastic energy. Molecular motors, like myosins in muscles, convert chemical energy into mechanical force and motion in living organisms. The term “airbreathing engine” describes chemical heat engines that use air in fuel reactions. Rockets and deep-sea submarines, which use chemical heat engines, must either carry a separate fuel component called the oxidizer or obtain heat through non-chemical means, such as nuclear reactions.

WORD ORIGIN

  • The Roman term ingenium, from which we get the word “ingenious,” is the etymological ancestor of our modern-day engine word, Old French engine. Siege engines were a term used to describe pre-industrial weapons of war, including catapults, trebuchets, and battering rams. 
  • Knowing how to build them was often guarded as a military secret. Cotton gins get their name from the abbreviation for “engine,” which is “gin.” The term “engine” came to describe most of the mechanical inventions of the Industrial Revolution, the most famous of which was the steam engine. In contrast, early steam engines like Thomas Savery’s were not mechanical but pumps. The first fire engines were water pumps pulled to fires by horses. 
  • These days, when you hear the word “engine,” you probably think of machines like steam engines and internal combustion engines, which use fuel to produce torque or linear force to do mechanical work.
  • Engines are devices that transform thermal energy into mechanical work. Some common types of engines that generate torque are internal combustion engines and turboshafts. Turbofans and rockets are two types of thrust-generating engines.
  • It was to differentiate it from the steam engine, commonly used to power trains and other vehicles like steam rollers, that the term “motor” was used when the internal combustion engine was first conceived. The Latin word moto, from which we get the word “motor,” means “to set in motion” or “to keep moving.” To that end, a motor can be defined as a machine that causes motion. In contemporary American English, “motor” and “engine” are the same.
  • Some technical vocabularies differentiate between engines and motors, with the former referring to machinery that alters the chemical composition of fuel through combustion. At the same time, the latter describes machinery that transfers energy from its source media, such as electricity, air, or hydraulic pressure, without altering the fuel itself. Even though rocket motors require power, they are still referred to in the field as rocket motors. 
  • Every motor and pump in a car with an internal combustion engine gets its juice from the motors and pumps themselves. Another way of looking at it is that an engine generates power from pressure, while a motor transfers electrical energy into mechanical energy.

TYPES

THERMAL ENGINES

  • In the broadest sense, Thermal engines need heat input to generate motion. These engines can be classified as either combustive or non-combustive, depending on how they produce the necessary heat. The combustion of a fuel or the rerouting of a fluid to produce mechanical work makes them work. As a result, there is a lot of crossover between thermal engines and chemical propulsion systems. There are two types of machines: those that require an external oxidizer and those that don’t. 

INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES

  • Today, internal combustion engines are relatively common. Vehicles, lawnmowers, helicopters, and the like are all powered by them. The largest IC engine has the power to propel a ship carrying 20,000 containers, producing 109,000 HP. Internal Combustion engines get their energy from fuel combustion in a combustion chamber. 
  • Combustion produces byproducts that are significantly more massive than the reactants themselves. In internal combustion engines, this expansion is the meat and potatoes, which makes the engine go. The energy released as heat during combustion is a byproduct that does not contribute to the actual mechanical effort and is, therefore, a waste.
  • Several researchers and engineers worked to perfect the internal combustion engine. John Barber invented the gas turbine in 1791. 
  • Thomas Mead patented the first internal combustion engine using gas in 1794. As early as 1794, Robert Street had already developed and constructed the first internal combustion engine to run on liquid fuel. John Stevens created the first American internal combustion engine in 1798. Engineers Nicéphore Niépce (later the inventor of photography) and Claude Niépce of France successfully tested their patented Pyréolophore internal combustion engine prototype in 1807. 
  • An engine like this one propelled a boat down the Saône in France. Using hydrogen as fuel and an electric spark to ignite the combustion process, Swiss inventor François Isaac de Rivaz created the first internal combustion engine in 1896. The “world’s first internal combustion powered automobile” was built by De Rivaz in 1808 using his innovation. Samuel Brown patented the first practical internal combustion engine in 1823.

EXTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES

  • Fuel is burned in one chamber, and the working fluid is heated via a heat exchanger or the engine’s wall in external combustion engines. 
  • The steam engine, the undisputed king of the Industrial Revolution, belongs here. To some extent, EC engines are like their IC counterparts because they both run on the heat created when fuel is burned. Fluids used in EC engines undergo thermal expansion and contraction or a phase change without changing chemical composition. The first steam engines put to industrial use generated work by sucking the air out rather than pushing it in. 
  • These engines, known as “atmospheric engines,” were slow and wasteful. Over time, steam engines evolved into what we recognize today, adopting features like piston systems and compound engine systems.
  • Steam engines were once widely used, but they have fallen out of favor since they are more convenient and efficient than modern IC engines. If you can handle their bulk and constant demand for labor, though, they are fantastic. Because of this, EC is widely used as a component of steam turbine engines for maritime and terrestrial power generation. Nuclear power applications follow the same principles as EC engines but don’t obtain their power from combustion, and they are referred to as non-combustive or external thermal engines.

REACTION ENGINES

  • Reaction Engines, often known as “jet engines,” create thrust by ejecting reactive material. When anything is blown through the back of a reactive engine with enough force, it pushes the front end forward, according to Newton’s Third Law.
  • Jet engines, such as those seen on Boeing passenger planes, are technically airbreathing jet engines, a type of turbine-powered engine. Airbreathing jet engines of the ram-powered variety, such as the ramjet, are typically considered more straightforward and more reliable than conventional ones since they contain fewer moving parts. 
  • The turbojet uses turbines to pull in and compress air before feeding it into the combustion chamber, whereas the ramjet relies on the force of the jet’s forward motion to force the air into the engine. 
  • Once you get past that, they serve the same purpose. A rocket engine, similar to a jet engine but does not require air for combustion, performs precisely like a jet engine except for the front part. Because the oxidizer is already included in the fuel, it can be used in space. They’re unique among engines in that they often operate on solid fuels.

ELECTRICAL ENGINES

  • Traditional electrical motors can be classified as either magnetic, piezoelectric, or electrostatic. Like the local battery, the magnetic one sees the most daily use. It produces energy by combining a magnetic field and an electric current. It operates on the same backward principle as a conventional dynamo. Turning a hand-cranked electrical-magnetic motor can produce some usable electricity.
  • A rotating magnetic field is produced when an electric current is passed through the winding and interacts with the magnet. Electrical motors consist of two primary parts: the stator, which is the engine’s exterior and does not move, and the rotor, which rotates inside the stator. 
  • They have a bit of space between them. The magnets and conductor can switch places; typically, magnets are installed in the stator while the conductor is looped around the rotor. To keep the rotor spinning, magnetic motors have a commutator that alternates the flow of electricity and adjusts the strength of the induced magnetic field. Some of the most energy-efficient engines are traditional electrical ones, with up to 90% conversion efficiencies.

PHYSICAL ENGINES

  • Mechanical energy is the fuel of physical engines. Mechanical propulsion can be anything from a simple gearbox to complex clockwork, pneumatic, or hydraulic systems. Spring energy is stored in clockwork engines like these and must be wound daily. To operate, pneumatic and hydraulic engines must transport bulky tubes of compressed fluids, which often only last for a while. 
  • The Plongeur, the first submarine to be mechanically powered, was constructed in France between 1860 and 1863. It used a reciprocating air engine fed by 23 tanks at 12.5 bars of pressure;
  • Even though they were highly bulky, their capacity to propel the ship at 4 knots for five nautical miles was severely inadequate.

Engine Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Engines across 28 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Engines. An engine is a device that uses fuel to produce mechanical energy, which in turn can be used to generate motion.

Engine Worksheets
Engine Worksheets
Engine Worksheets

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Engine Facts
  2. Is It True?
  3. Look Out
  4. Quiz Time
  5. The Process
  6. IC Engine
  7. Importance
  8. Types
  9. The Best One
  10. My Innovation
  11. How Does It Work?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an engine?

An engine is a machine that converts fuel into motion. It is typically used to power vehicles, machinery, and other devices.

What are the different types of engines?

There are many types of engines, including internal combustion engines, diesel engines, gas turbines, steam engines, and electric motors. Each type has its own unique characteristics and applications.

How does an internal combustion engine work?

An internal combustion engine works by burning fuel and air inside a cylinder to create pressure that drives a piston. This motion is transferred to a crankshaft, which turns the engine’s wheels or driveshaft.

What is horsepower?

Horsepower is a unit of power that is used to measure the output of an engine. It is the amount of work that can be done in a given amount of time and is typically used to describe the power of engines in vehicles.

How can I maintain my engine?

To maintain your engine, you should regularly check and change the oil, replace the air filter, check the spark plugs, and keep the cooling system in good condition. It’s also important to follow the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedule and to address any problems as soon as they arise.

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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