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motor or engine?

overst33r

overst33r

Diamond Member
I have always understood a motor to be a device that converts any form of stored energy into mechanical motion.

so are all engines motors, but not all motors are engines...😕

I dont like it when people talk about engines in their cars and call them motors...
 
On my old Acura, it said "Honda MOTOR Co" right on the valve cover. And yet I still called it an engine. 😛
 
From Answers.com:
"Although the terms sometimes cause confusion, there is no real difference between an "engine" and a "motor." At one time, the word "engine" (from Latin, via Old French, ingenium, "ability") meant any piece of machinery. A "motor" (from Latin motor, "mover") is any machine that produces mechanical power. Traditionally, electric motors are not referred to as "engines," but combustion engines are often referred to as "motors." (An electric engine refers to locomotive operated by electricity).

http://www.answers.com/topic/internal-combustion-engine
 
Originally posted by: mariok2006
I have always understood a motor to be a device that converts any form of stored energy into mechanical motion.

so are all engines motors, but not all motors are engines...😕

I dont like it when people talk about engines in their cars and call them motors...
Click to expand...

I'll call the thing under my hood a motor or an engine, no real rhyme or reason to it, it's kinda random with me. . . .

Oh well, I guess we can't be friends.
 
Originally posted by: mariok2006
I have always understood a motor to be a device that converts any form of stored energy into mechanical motion.

so are all engines motors, but not all motors are engines...😕

I dont like it when people talk about engines in their cars and call them motors...
Click to expand...



According to Marriam Webster
http://m-w.com/dictionary/engine

An engine is a machine and your definition fits that of a motor. A water wheel could be considered an engine. But an electirc motor is not.

4 : a machine for converting any of various forms of energy into mechanical force and motion; also : a mechanism or object that serves as an energy source <black holes may be the engines for quasars>
 
Originally posted by: LoKe
Motor.

EDIT:
A motor is a machine that converts some form of energy into mechanical energy. In some contexts, the word motor refers specifically to an internal combustion engine.
Click to expand...

-- Source
Click to expand...


An engine is something that produces some effect from a given input. The origin of engineering was the working of engines. There is an overlap in English between two meanings of the word "engineer": 'those who operate engines' and 'those who design and construct new items'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine


Sterling Engine, not Sterling Motor.
 
Bah, it doesn't matter. Generally though, I use motor = anything not fuel powered (gas, alchohol, diesel, CNG, etc) while engine = fuel powered. It depends on where you get your deffinition.
 
From a generic or semantic point of view, they are the same, but in common usage we have gasoline engines and electric motors.
 
if it's powered by combustion it's an engine. if it's powered by electricity it's a motor. as far as i'm concerned anyway.
 
Engine! :|

😛

IMO, "motor" is electrical and "engine" should referr to an ICE.
 
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