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How cars work
How cars work
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Combustion is key:
The basic idea to understand is what a reciprocating internal combustion
engine is. How a reciprocating internal combustion engine works
is complex, naturally, thus it is helpful to have a good mental
image of "internal combustion".
For example:
Picture an old cannon from the Revolutionary War to help yourself
imagine how a car works. You have probably seen these in movies,
(or replicas at the circus). In films the soldiers will load up
the dark cannon with a cannon ball and some gunpowder. When they
light it and the cannon ball flies (or the clown); that is internal
combustion.
I know, it is hard to imagine that image as having anything to
do with automobile engines, and how a car works but it does.
Another example:
This example may seem a bit more relevant to the function of a car
engine and how a car works.
- Imagine that you took a big section of plastic sewer pipe, say
maybe 3 inches in diameter and 3 feet long.
- Then you put a cap on one end of the section of plastic piping.
Next you sprayed a little WD-40 into the pipe, or put in a tiny
drop of gasoline.
- Then say that you stuffed a potato down the pipe. (this example
is strictly made hypothetically, of course).
What we would have here is a device commonly known as a potato
cannon. A spark can ignite the fuel. And with fuel is the only way
a car will move.
What is remarkable is that a potato cannon can launch a potato
about 500 feet! There is a huge amount of power and energy in a
tiny drop of gasoline. We put in gallons and gallons at a time to
make our cars work. The power of a reciprocating internal combustion
engine moves the car forward and backward—controlling speed
and direction with transmission, steering and brake systems.
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