Engine or Motor....... which is it?????

BubbaJr · Dec 6, 2003

I always heard the same things, so I looked it up in my Webster's New World College Dictionary and they define the following:

Engine Any machine that uses energy to develop mechanical power; esp,. a machine for transmitting motion to some other machine.

Motor 1. anything that produces or imparts motion. 2. An engine; esp., an internal-combustion engine for propelling a vehicle. 4. A machine for converting electric energy into mechanical energy.

There were other definitions, but these were related to the discussion. It kind of sounds like one of those instances where everyone is right. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Junkman · Dec 6, 2003

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YOU ARE RIGHT! it is junkmans fault! lets all go over to his house and have a CHRISTMAS PARTY and send him the bill! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

all in favor say AYE! )

No problem with me....... just remember that you will have to first join the Northeast Connecticut chapter of TBN first. We are a closed society that only admit old, grumpy, ugly, sarcastic people such as lamsbur, our illustrious fearless leader.... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif I think that we are having a membership drive this week....

OkeeDon · Dec 6, 2003

I used to live in Westford, Massachusetts, near the New Hampshire border, but moved away over 30 years ago because I wasn't old, grumpy, ugly or sarcastic. I have since grown old, ugly and sarcastic, but am still not grumpy, so I guess I'm still not welcome. The Southern Crackers with whom I now associate have grudgingly condescended to admit me as a Yankee Cracker, probably because some of them have also grown beards.

An engine is not a motor, so all those references to motor oil, motor homes, motorcyles and motor sports are simply wrong, and all those who use the term "motor" when they mean engine, including the dictionary, should be held responsible for all the world's problems, except for those problems caused by people who say "irregardless". /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

bgott · Dec 7, 2003

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

motor

SYLLABICATION: mo·tor
PRONUNCIATION: mtr
NOUN: 1. Something, such as a machine or an engine, that produces or imparts motion. 2. A device that converts any form of energy into mechanical energy, especially an internal-combustion engine or an arrangement of coils and magnets that converts electric current into mechanical power. 3. A motor vehicle, especially an automobile: “It was a night of lovers. All along the highway … motors were parked and dim figures were clasped in revery” (Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt 1922).
ADJECTIVE: 1. Causing or producing motion: motor power. 2. Driven by or having a motor. 3. Of or for motors or motor vehicles: motor oil. 4. Of, relating to, or designating nerves that carry impulses from the nerve centers to the muscles. 5. Involving or relating to movements of the muscles: motor coordination; a motor reflex.
VERB: Inflected forms: mo·tored, mo·tor·ing, mo·tors

INTRANSITIVE VERB: To drive or travel in a motor vehicle.
TRANSITIVE VERB: To carry by motor vehicle.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English motour, prime mover, from Latin mtor, from mtus, past participle of movre, to move. See meu- in Appendix I.

The internal combustion engine in a car and the external combustion engine called a steam engine are also known as prime movers.

prime mover

NOUN: 1a. One regarded as the initial source of energy directed toward a goal: Patriotism was the prime mover of the revolution. b. The initial force, such as electricity, wind, or gravity, that engages or moves a machine. c. A machine or mechanism that converts natural energy into work. Also called primum mobile. 2. Any of various heavy-duty trucks or tractors. 3. Philosophy In Aristotelian philosophy, the self-moved being that causes all motion.

I guess that, for this debate, an engine would convert natural energy to do work and a motor would use converted energy, electricity or fluid power, to do work. At least that's the way I've been taught and understood it. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif I guess that, like so many other things in life that seemed important when I learned them, it doesn't make a freakin' bit of difference. Unless you go to order parts for the engine in your vacuum cleaner. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Junkman · Dec 7, 2003

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An engine is not a motor, so all those references to motor oil, motor homes, motorcycles and motor sports are simply wrong, and all those who use the term "motor" when they mean engine, including the dictionary, should be held responsible for all the world's problems, except for those problems caused by people who say "irregardless". /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )

Is "irregardless" in the same classification of words as "inflammable" ??????? /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Egon · Dec 7, 2003

Ahh- language and definitions change over the years.

Proper English is for Proffessors who can then justify their livelyhood by publishing papers on the vagracies of the spoken and written word. It can also be used by other disiplines to spend endless hours complicating the meaning of a subject so it is beyond the ability of mere mortals to decipher.

That's my opion anyway -ehh.

Egon

TresCrows · Dec 7, 2003

In common language the words are used interchangeably but in fact the meanings are different. A motor may be electric, hydraulic, air powered etc. In each case an engine such as a diesel electric generator produces the power and "pumps" the electricity through the wires to power the MOTOR. In an engine, the power is generated using a fuel. It may be external, steam, or internal such as a gasoline ENGINE. A jet engine is just that, an engine.
In a compressed air model MOTOR I have, some other engine produces the compressed gas stored in a small bottle. Another way of looking at it is that an engine produces it's own power using fuel to perform useful work, a motor consumes power generated at some other source, from an engine, to perform useful work. An automobile, truck etc has an engine, your electric air compressor has a motor. J

em14 · Dec 7, 2003

.... and that's the way I was taught!
Leo

Henro · Dec 7, 2003

Many years ago [ well, not THAT many, but more than I have fingers and toes to count on] I was in Tokyo and interested in the meaning of motors and engines and all that...

I was talking to an older guy, also a traveller of sorts, and I remember him stressing something, as I hung on to the words he was saying, and tried to make some sense of it all.

"You said engine, do you mean motor?" I asked sincerely.

"You're too hung up on the words, friend." he told me. "look deeper for the meaning behind them...and you will understand..."

Guess that is why I put fuel in my tractor's engine and oil in its motor... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

TresCrows · Dec 7, 2003

""You're too hung up on the words, friend." he told me. "look deeper for the meaning behind them...and you will understand..." "

I guess that is why I think most people need to buy themselves a dictionary /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif. J