EXHIBIT: Start Your Engines

2003 Science  
This fun site lets you look under the hood, so to speak, and discover how engines work. Software engineer and technology buff Matt Keveney of Oakland, California, takes apart 19 types of historical and modern engines, and his clever animations show each mechanism chugging along. Fire up the first steam engine, a hefty contraption patented in 1705 by Thomas Newcomen that often powered pumps to drain English mines (above). Low-pressure steam from boiling water and the weight of the pump rod drive
more » ... the engine's piston. You can also study the innards of rockets and jets, as well as turboprops, in which exhaust gases spin turbines that drive the plane's propeller.
doi:10.1126/science.299.5613.1637a fatcat:kov5gw7e3bcyviaeue32krlh5y