How does an engine make a car move?
Tiny Fires, Big Journeys
How does an engine make a car move?
A car just sits there — a heavy lump of metal and glass — until something deep inside it wakes up and starts pushing. That something is the engine, and its secret is almost too silly to believe. A car moves because of thousands of tiny, controlled explosions. Let's open the hood and meet them.
Inside the engine are smooth metal tubes called cylinders. Picture a tall drinking glass standing upright. Inside each one sits a snug metal plug called a piston, and the piston can slide up and down like a bicycle pump being pushed and pulled. That sliding is where all the movement begins.
