Why can air be compressed but liquids can’t?
In: Physics
This is precisely why you need a turbo charger to get more power out of your engine. (Four stroke internal combustion gasoline powered engine, that is.)
You can always squirt in more gasoline using the fuel injectors, no problem. Because the liquid basically does not compress.
But technically the “fuel“ needed by your engine is the mixture of both gasoline and air. And you cannot just squirt in more air. The only way to get more air in, when you squirt in more gasoline, is to first compress that air so there is enough of it to be matched with the additional gasoline.
This is how you increase the total “fuel“ injected into the cylinder prior to combustion. And this is why a turbo charged engine is more powerful, because it can use more fuel, by compressing the air.
Oh and by the way it’s called a “turbo“ charger because it has a turbine. (And the turbine spins by using the exhaust coming from the engine.) And that turbine is connected to a compressor, which is what compresses the air.
So this is a real-world, practical answer to your question: gasoline does not compress, air does, and you can see that in action in a turbo charged engine.
Latest Answers