Engine vs. Motor

[graham]

From this article linked in a different thread:

News & Culture in Silicon Valley | Silicon Valley News Notes

Compact and low to the ground, the two seater was so quiet we wondered if the engine was even running as the wheels rolled down the hill. "A motor," Drori corrected. "It doesn't have an engine."

I have seen similar statements from other Tesla employees, and I understand trying to differentiate the Tesla with the terminology. However, does anyone else think that correcting everyone on this term will be a losing battle? In the vernacular, 'engine' is the thing that makes your car go, no matter it's power source.

Of course this could just be a 'tin' foil hat conspiracy that occurs to me while driving my 'steam'roller and 'dial'ing my phone using a pencil 'lead'

[dpeilow]

In the UK, engine always refers to an ICE or gas turbine, whereas motors almost always run on electricity. You would never hear anyone say "electric engine", but you might occasionally hear the phrase "petrol/diesel motor".

But I suspect that wasn't always the case - hence a motorbike (which has an engine...) and more rarely these days, motorcar (the latter sounds quaint and almost legalese).

[TEG]

I had been 'correcting' people on that one for a quite a while on the forums. I even tried to coin the term 'eMotor' to make it clearer.

Then there is the old 'gas pedal' / 'throttle' nomenclature issue as well.

Also, 'quick' vs 'fast'. When someone says a Tesla is 'faster' than a Ferrari I wince because to me 'fast' is top speed, and 'quick' is 0-60 acceleration.

[vfx]

In the UK,.... hence a motorbike (which has an engine...)

Or as we say, Motorcycle


Never heard the term Enginecycle.

[Joseph]

Terminology (and grammar) is important. It's a motor, not an engine.

[philweicker]

An engine is necessarily a thermal device. An electric engine would potentially exist, but it would have to do something like heat water electrically to produce steam. EVs have motors, not engines.

[dpeilow]

Not necessarily - there is the example of the Difference Engine (early mechanical "computer").

Engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An engine is a mechanical device that produces some form of output from a given input.

An engine whose purpose is to produce kinetic energy output from a fuel source is called a prime mover; alternatively, a motor is a device which produces kinetic energy from a preprocessed "fuel" (such as electricity, a flow of hydraulic fluid or compressed air).

A motor car (automobile) has a starter motor and motors to drive pumps (fuel, power steering, etc) – but the power plant that propels the car is called an engine. The term 'motor' was originally used to distinguish the new internal combustion engine -powered vehicles from earlier vehicles powered by a steam engine (as in steam roller and motor roller).

[doug]

Terminology (and grammar) is important. It's a motor, not an engine.

Yes terminology is important. As a scientist, I know that precision in communication is crucial. I also used to be a grammar Nazi. But there is often a difference between the technical and common definition of a word. And even between different technical fields, the same word can have different definitions. More and more, I've come to realize that language is fluid and there isn't really much of a point arguing these sorts of semantics.

If you went back to the original meaning of the word engine (as my couple years of high school Latin can attest), it would be fine for an electric motor. These days (especially in the context of transportation) the word engine implies some sort of combustion engine, so certain people like to make the distinction. But to go up to a lay person and say an electric car has no engine is just being unnecessarily confusing. Fortunately, the meaning of the word motor is more general* and more obvious. A motor is something that imparts motion. In space flight, often the individual rocket engines are referred to as motors. (This can confuse some people since, for them, the word implies something spinning.) Clearly the word motor is ok to use when referring to an ICE. So I say if someone insists that you use the word motor instead of engine, that person should really specify that it's an electric motor (e-motor is a good term to promote), since motor driven could mean it's a rocket!!

Then there is the old 'gas pedal' / 'throttle' nomenclature issue as well.

I think it makes sense to correct the terms "gas pedal" and "throttle" since we do want to emphasize that an electric car is not using liquid fuel, and we have the word "accelerator" which works perfectly fine. ("I'm sure the manual will indicate which lever is the velocitator and which is the deceleratrix."- M. Burns)

"Gas pedal" may persist, though, since terms coined for a particular function within a type of technology can often stick around for the analogous function when the technology changes.
And oddly enough, "throttle" may eventually be ok in this context by its own right. Technically a throttle is something that regulates the flow of a fluid (liquid or gas), but the trend in the vernacular is that it's being generalized to mean regulate anything. This might be because some people can't tell that the sentence, "Throttle back your enthusiasm." contains a metaphor. Ironically, this brings "throttle" closer to it's earlier, pre-technical meaning of to suppress or choke.

[Edit: Just remembered this thread, http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/techn...que-pedal.html, where I made somewhat similar comments. Even used the same Simpsons quote.]

Also, 'quick' vs 'fast'. When someone says a Tesla is 'faster' than a Ferrari I wince because to me 'fast' is top speed, and 'quick' is 0-60 acceleration.

Quick and fast essentially mean the same thing, so not much sense making that distinction. However, to say "A Tesla is faster (or quicker for that mater) than a Ferrari." is misleading marketing spin. To be accurate they should just specify "shorter 0-60 time" or whatever metric they're using.


* "general" is one of those words that has a different meaning for scientists than it does for laymen.

[vfx]

... As a scientist, ...

This explains a lot.

***************

I am still lobbying for "Torque pedal"


***************


Martin wrote on his blog,
" Lots of juice left, so I got on the freeway at full throttle. (We really need a new list of expressions for this!)"

As Doug has pointed out this still linguistically works. (even if this sentence does not!:)



I have jotted down a few new ideas but nothing I love yet.

[TEG]

Quick and fast essentially mean the same thing, so not much sense making that distinction.

Perhaps by strict dictionary definition, but in common usage I find that quick is typically about acceleration, and fast is about top speed. Because enough people think about them that way it is probably good practice to make sure you don't say "Tesla is faster than other Supercars"

Some examples:
What is the difference between being quick and fast? - Yahoo! Answers
Volkswagen Jetta 2005 and earlier - CarSpace Automotive Forums
Quick vs. Fast Under311