An engine or engine is a machine designed to convert a form of energy into mechanical energy. Heat engines burn a fuel to create heat, which is then used to create a force. Electric motors convert electrical energy into mechanical movement; Pneumatic motors use compressed air and watchmaking motors in winding toys use elastic energy. In biological systems, molecular motors, such as myosins in muscles, use chemical energy to create forces and eventually move.
The word motor derives from the old French engin, from the Latin ingenium, the root of the word ingenious. Pre-industrial weapons of war, such as catapults, trebuchets and battering rams, were called siege machines, and knowledge of how to construct them was often treated as a military secret. The word gin, as in cotton gin, is short for the engine. Most of the mechanical devices invented during the industrial revolution were described as engines, the steam engine being a notable example. However, the original steam engines, like those of Thomas Savery, were not mechanical motors but bombs. In this way, a fire engine in its original form was simply a water pump, with the engine being transported to the fire by the horses.
In modern usage, the term "motor" typically describes devices, such as steam engines and internal combustion engines, that burn or consume fuel for mechanical work by exerting a torque or linear force (usually in the form of a thrust). Devices that convert thermal energy into motion are commonly referred to simply as motors. Examples of torque motors include the familiar gasoline and diesel engines as well as turboshafts. Examples of engines that produce thrust include turbo-propellers and rockets.
When the internal combustion engine was invented, the term engine was initially used to distinguish it from the steam engine, which was in widespread use at that time, feeding locomotives and other vehicles such as steam rollers. The term motor derives from the Latin verb moto that means to put in movement, or to maintain the movement. Thus, an engine is a device that imparts movement.
Later, the engine and engine came to be used interchangeably in casual discourse. However, technically, the two words have different meanings. An engine is a device that burns or otherwise consumes fuel, changing its chemical composition, while an engine is a device driven by electricity, air or hydraulic pressure, which does not change the chemical composition of its energy source. However, the rocket uses the term rocket engine, although they consume fuel.
A thermal engine can also serve as the main engine, a component that transforms the flow or changes in pressure of a fluid into mechanical energy. A car driven by an internal combustion engine can make use of several engines and pumps, but ultimately all these devices derive their engine power. Another way of looking at it is that a motor receives energy from an external source and then converts it into mechanical energy, whereas a motor creates energy from the pressure (derived directly from the explosive combustion or other chemical reaction or secondarily from The action of such force on other substances such as air, water or steam).