ENGINE = CYLINDER + PISTON

Next time when you get a drug injection, look at the syringe. It is a simple cylinder and piston mechanism. This device can push or draw fluids. OR the piston can get pushed or drawn in by the pressurized fluids. The 'piston and cylinder' have wide applications from pressure air pumps to car engines.

We know, in a steam engine this apparatus plays a crucial role. And the steam engine fueled the industrial revolution. The railway system used this engine for many decades.

Piston and the cylinder rules the automobile industry even today. It is the heart of any fossil fuel engine. The power of any auto vehicle is determined and measured by volume of the cylinder and the number of the cylinders.(110 cc ,800cc, ... 2 stroke, 4 stroke). The subject thermodynamics is mostly built around this engines.

We can define engine as one which converts any form of energy into repeated mechanical action. The electric motors have replaced these engines in many places but not all.

People say: Tomorrow using nano technology, 'piston and cylinder' will be built in molecular scale which may bring another revolution.

Anyway, whenever engine is mentioned moving piston and cylinders comes to our mind.

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