Motor or Engine?
Motor or Engine?
Posting Guru
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,297
Likes: 3
From: Billings MT
Motor or Engine?
I agree with the previous post.
Typically, I say that a car has an engine. Sometimes when the engine is really built, detailed, I might say "That's quite a motor", but that is rare.
Air Conditioners, power tools, compressors, etc all have motors, never called one of them an engine.
Typically, I say that a car has an engine. Sometimes when the engine is really built, detailed, I might say "That's quite a motor", but that is rare.
Air Conditioners, power tools, compressors, etc all have motors, never called one of them an engine.
Postmaster
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 3,496
Likes: 0
From: Calgary Canada
Motor or Engine?
I'm pretty close to 1993F150XL.
My take on it has always been that an engine produces its own power to do work, while a motor uses an external source of power to do work.
Engine - Anything that uses combustion - gasoline, diesel, rocket fuel, etc...
Motor - Anything that uses an external energy source, ie electricity or pressurized fluid, ie. an electric motor or a hydraulic motor.
Waxy
My take on it has always been that an engine produces its own power to do work, while a motor uses an external source of power to do work.
Engine - Anything that uses combustion - gasoline, diesel, rocket fuel, etc...
Motor - Anything that uses an external energy source, ie electricity or pressurized fluid, ie. an electric motor or a hydraulic motor.
Waxy
Elder User
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 987
Likes: 2
From: East Bend, Carolina, U.S
Motor or Engine?
Steam engines don't use internal combustion. Yet they are engines. The definition of a motor is not something that uses electricity only to make power and or do work. An engine is defined as a type of motor that converts any form of energy into mechanical energy. The word motor covers all devices that do this. The word engine is just specifying which kind of motor.
All internal combustion engines convert a form of energy into mechanical energy and do work. This means they require energy to do what they do just like an electric motor requires the electrical energy to do work. Internal combustion engines require the external power source of the fuel they burn to create mechanical energy.
All internal combustion engines convert a form of energy into mechanical energy and do work. This means they require energy to do what they do just like an electric motor requires the electrical energy to do work. Internal combustion engines require the external power source of the fuel they burn to create mechanical energy.
Trending Topics
Senior User
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 419
Likes: 0
From: DC
Motor or Engine?
Yes, but ...
NASCAR guys always seem to talk about their "motors" not their engines.
I grew up thinking motor means an electric motor and engine is a gas or diesel engine.
NASCAR guys always seem to talk about their "motors" not their engines.
I grew up thinking motor means an electric motor and engine is a gas or diesel engine.
FTE Stories
Ford Trucks for Ford Truck Enthusiasts
3 Best / 3 Worst Parts of Modern Ford Ownership
Brett Foote
10 Amazing Upgrades That Solve Common Ford Truck Owner Headaches
Pouria Savadkouei
Every 2026 Ford Engine Explained
Brett Foote
10 Ugly Ford Trucks That We Still Kinda Love
Joe Kucinski
10 Things Every Truck Owner NEEDS (2026 Edition)
Michael S. Palmer
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalyptic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Most Expensive Ford Trucks Ever Sold on Bring a Trailer
Joe Kucinski
2027 Ford Super Duty Buyer's Guide (Every Model, Engine, & Package)
Brett Foote
Top 10 Ford Truck Tragedies
Joe Kucinski
Posting Guru
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 1,531
Likes: 1
From: in the country
Motor or Engine?
not having any kind of college physics\chemistry It looks to me that the difference twixt motor and engine is in the change of state that the fuel has to go thru for an engine which results in 2 separate forms of energy being produced....(1)Heat or the inefficient part...and(2) mechanical motion..the Efficient part. A Motor (electric) simply takes the electrons and thru the process of electomagnetic induction converts them into mechanical energy. There is a generation of some heat but i thimk that is associated with the resistance of the wire...it is obviously the inefficient part of the process. My definition of efficiency is power consumed vs power produced...or EER , energy efficiency ratio. I wish T1 would weigh in on this as this is his area of expertise......fd
Fleet Owner
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 29,941
Likes: 46
From: Drummonds, TN USA
Motor or Engine?
Post number two is exactly correct.
In engineering terms - a "MOTOR" is an Electromechanical Device (IE: "Utilising Electromotive Force"), whereas an "Engine" derives it's power from chemical means.
Additionally - This is why the MORTARS of long ago wars were referred to as "Siege Engines"
(Also catapults which used explosives, or burning incendiary loads)
For additional information - use your favorite search engine(?) to find references to:
"PUNKIN' Chunkin' "!!!
In engineering terms - a "MOTOR" is an Electromechanical Device (IE: "Utilising Electromotive Force"), whereas an "Engine" derives it's power from chemical means.
Additionally - This is why the MORTARS of long ago wars were referred to as "Siege Engines"
(Also catapults which used explosives, or burning incendiary loads)
For additional information - use your favorite search engine(?) to find references to:
"PUNKIN' Chunkin' "!!!
Last edited by Greywolf; May 20, 2003 at 07:44 PM.
Senior User
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 253
Likes: 0
From: Waterbury, CT.
Motor or Engine?
Postmaster
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 4,513
Likes: 0
From: La Tech University, La
Motor or Engine?
Actually, as in the dictionary or any other reliable source, an engine is a motor, but a motor is not nescessarily an engine, yet it does not go into it much further into it. It does say thatan engine turns energy into mechanical motion. a Motor is by definition something that generates or imparts motion: a device that changes eletrical energy to mechanical energy; or a device that produces mechanical power from fuel
Postmaster
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 3,496
Likes: 0
From: Calgary Canada
Motor or Engine?
This is a quote from the article that Freight Train posted.
It basically supports my interpretation (and that of the majority of posts here) of the general meaning of two words. Of course, as with anything, there are exceptions to the rule.
IMHO, the key is that an engine converts the fuel to energy, where as a motor uses supplied energy.
Waxy
In everyday, non-technical usage the words have much the same meaning. But they have such clearly defined and fixed compounds (except in the rocket case) that they can’t be thought of as entirely interchangeable. The magazine article argues that the difference is that engines contain their own fuel or are part of a highly integrated engine-fuel system, whereas a motor draws on externally supplied energy. That’s the rule given in the Oxford English Dictionary, but on reflection it seems not wholly satisfactory. It doesn’t work for outboard motor or rocket motor for example. And it doesn’t explain why the two words should have been applied in this way.
IMHO, the key is that an engine converts the fuel to energy, where as a motor uses supplied energy.
Waxy
