Eli5: Why is fuel/petroleum the liquid that makes cars run? What’s happening inside the car with this specific liquid that makes it go that can’t happen with other liquids?
In: Technology
Explosions! Your car works because of thousands of controlled explosions per second!
Fuel and air are brought into the cylinders, then ignited with a spark plug. The result is a tiny explosion. This explosion pushes a piston, which turns the crankshaft. When the power from this crankshaft is sent to the wheels, it makes your car move.
Petrol is used purely because we know the mixture we need to create an explosion the size we need, but engines can also be tuned to use other liquids like ethanol.
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