[Fsuk-manchester] RE: Fsuk-manchester Digest, Vol 43, Issue 9

[andrew]

>How do engines work!? 
In essence:

Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow.

Take in lots of air, squish it down into a small space (14 times smaller), add 
some fuel and set fire to it, whereupon
it will push hard on the piston and make your car move forwards.  Then you just 
need to throw all the old air out and
collect some more.  

You can make an engine with just one cylinder but they work better when you 
have at least three, that way you've always
got one piston pushing to make the others do their jobs further round the cycle.

>Why cant you see moving parts when you look
>inside? I was so disappointed : ( 
I'm afriad glass engine technology is not terribly welll advanced.  

Iin the meantime, take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpAJOPzKK-M and 
the other videos linked from there.  

Now imagine a potato as a piston, and attached by a rod to a spinning wheel, 
constantly pushing the wheel, then the
wheel shoves the spud back into the cannon as it turns, ready for firing again. 
 

Now put the spinning wheel on a cart and attach the axle of the spinning wheel 
to the wheels, so that it drives itself
along.

Now daisy chain a load of spinning wheels, all on a conjoined axle, all loading 
spuds at different times - so that, as
one spud leaves, another is being pushed back in.

Petrol and diesel are slightly different, in that petrol relies on a spark plug 
to set fire to the fuel, whereas with a
diesel you squish the air a lot more, making it hot, at which point you throw 
some fuel in and it fires because the air
is so hot - if you have ever pumped up a bicycle tire you will have felt the 
pump getting hot, and may have noticed that
you have to top the tyre up later, because the air has cooled and contracted.

Hope that helps.

Andrew.