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What's the difference between a motor and an engine? (2013)

Related Questions - How can a person ride a motorcycle 100 mph but not stand up in a 100 mph wind? - What are the future propulsion systems for interplanetary travel? - How does an aircraft steer while taxiing on a runway? - Will public transportation ever replace the automobile? - How does a jet engine work? - Can I start my car with a voice command? - Can I make my car fly? - Are Santa’s reindeer used for propulsion or navigation? - How does an airplane stop on a runway after landing? - Why don’t spacecraft burn up or veer off course during reentry from space? What’s the difference between a motor and an engine? As with almost any word, it all depends how far you go back in time for your definition…By Sarah Jensen As technologies and devices evolve, language must stay on its toes if we expect to understand each other when we talk about them. English-speakers are particularly flexible at adapting to progress.

“A person could be the motor of a plot or a political organization.” By the end of the 19th century, the Second Industrial Revolution had dotted the landscape with steel mills and factories, steamships and railways, and a new word was needed for the mechanisms that powered them. Rooted in the concept of motion, “motor” was the logical choice, and by 1899, it had entered the vernacular as the word for Duryea and Olds’ newfangled horseless carriages. “Without thinking about it, we adapt to new meanings and leave the old behind.” We talk about our computer’s dashboard, unaware that in the 1840s, the word referred to the board at the front of a carriage that stopped mud from being splashed on the coachman.

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