Instructional Video11:05
Crash Course

Reversibility and Irreversibility: Crash Course Engineering #8

9th - 12th
Reversibility in cars isn't about driving backwards. An informative YouTube video describes how the degree of reversibility in a system determines its efficiency. It explains the concept using an example of the pistons in a car engine...
Instructional Video12:55
Crash Course

Why We Can't Invent a Perfect Engine: Crash Course Engineering #10

9th - 12th
Your car's engine is likely to be only 20 percent thermally efficient. Why so inefficient? Viewers of the 10th video in an engineering series learn how the second law of thermodynamics and entropy limit the efficiency of a car engine....
Instructional Video10:21
1
1
Crash Course

Engines: Crash Course Physics #24

9th - Higher Ed Standards
Rev up your teaching with a lesson on engines! The 24th installment in a Crash Course physics series explains the basics of an engine through a discussion of thermodynamics. The instructor shows examples explains the efficiency of the...
Instructional Video4:50
Real Engineering

Steam Engine—How Does It Work?

10th - Higher Ed
Full steam ahead! A video in the Real Engineering playlist shows viewers how steam engines work. the video starts with an explanation of the inefficient steam engines from before the Industrial Revolution and ends with modern steam...
Instructional Video4:40
Real Engineering

The Spitfire's Fatal Flaw

10th - Higher Ed
In a battle between the Spitfire and the Messerschmidt, the Spitfire had one major problem. A Real Engineering video shows how the Spitfire airplane had a tendency to stall in negative gravity. Along the way, viewers learn about pressure...
Instructional Video2:04
MinutePhysics

Why Are Airplane Engines So Big?

9th - 12th
Why is the size of jet engines increasing? An entertaining video lesson describes the efficiency of jet engines. The narrator describes the poor design of an engine that is too small or too big and explains why it is more efficient to...
Instructional Video
University of Massachusetts

Science Out Loud: What Do Horses, Cars, & Planes Have in Common?

9th - 10th
Ever wondered what horsepower really means, and what horses have to do with other modes of transportation? Luke and Abhi take us behind how engines work in machines all around us, including the surprising ways that they're all related!...
Instructional Video
PBS

Pbs Kids: Animations: How Does an Internal Combustion Engine Work?

3rd - 8th
Narrated animation that shows how an engine uses flowing air to draw fuel into a cylinder causing a spark to ignite the combustible mixture. ( 30 sec) Uses Quicktime.