So, the other day I was watching, uh, some racing, and the announcer guy kept talking about the “power unit” and the “engine.” I was like, “Aren’t they the same thing?” I mean, they both make the car go, right? So, I did what any normal person would do: I dove headfirst into the internet to figure this out. You won’t believe what I found!
First Stop: Some random website
This place was going on about torque and rotational force and stuff. I kinda skimmed that part, but it said something like, “While torque refers to the rotational force produced by the engine.” That just confused me more, but I kept on going.
Another website: Energy and work
This one was a little better. It talked about how energy is about the amount of work, and work is when a force moves something. But then it said “Power, on the other hand…” and I was like, “Oh boy, here we go again.” I am not very understand that, but I know the power is very important to our life.
A goldmine of info
- Internal Combustion Engine (ICE): This is what I always thought of as the engine. It’s the part that burns fuel.
- Turbo: This thing makes the engine more powerful by forcing in more air.
- MGU-K and MGU-H: These are some kind of electric motor things that help with power and efficiency, I didn’t fully understand that part.
- Control Electronics: The brains of the operation. I guess it’s like a computer for the car.
- Energy Store: Basically, a big battery.
Apparently, in fancy racing cars, the “power unit” is all this stuff combined, not just the engine part that burns fuel. Then, it mentioned different ways to measure engine power, like kilowatt (kW), Pferdestärke (PS), or Horsepower (HP). So many strange words, but I remembered HP is Horsepower, that is a usual word in our life.
One last tidbit
I found one more thing that said, “People use both interchangeably, but the difference is that motors run on electricity and engines run on combustion.” That actually made sense! So, I guess in a regular car, we just say “engine” because it’s simpler. But in those high-tech racing cars, they have all these extra electric parts, so they call it a “power unit.” I decided to record it on my blog, and hope that can help others to understand that.
Man, the internet is a wild place. But at least I finally get the difference between a power unit and an engine. Turns out, it’s not as simple as I thought!
