internal combustion engine
internal combustion engine Engine in which fuel is burned inside, so that the gases formed can produce motion, widely used in automobiles. An internal combustion engine may be a two-stroke engine or a four-stroke engine. In the most common type of engine, a mixture of petroleum vapour and air is ignited by a spark. The gases produced in the explosion usually drive a piston along a cylinder. A crankshaft changes the reciprocating (to-and-fro) movement of the pistons into rotary motion. In the Wankel rotary engine, the gases produced in the explosions drive a triangular rotor. Nikolaus Otto built the first practical internal combustion engine in 1867. Rudolf Diesel designed the first diesel engine in 1897. Because combustion is incomplete and reliant on fossil fuels, internal combustion engines are a major cause of air pollution.
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internal combustion engine
