Pet Peeve... "Motor"
 

I saw it in the paper this morning. The context was an airport neighbor talking about how she gets a-scared whenever she hears "those airplane motors."

But it's not just a lay-people thing. I hear a lot of fellow pilots saying it.

It's an ENGINE!!! ENGINE!!! ENGINE!!!

Does this bother anyone else, or do I have mild OCD?

I'd have to say you have OCD :D

Webster's says a motor is "any of various power units that develop energy or impart motion". So that would make an engine a type of motor. It'd be like calling a square a rectangle, or hot air balloon an aircraft.

Now don't get me started on people calling bison "buffalos", or chimpanzee's "monkeys". They're not. Get it right people!

OCD... Maybe.... I might get a little miffed if I heard a fellow pilot calling it a motor... Or the ASI a Speedometer... Maybe I'm OCD too...

Fords are the only things that have "motors" haha.

Odd, I was just wondering the same thing while riding home from work on my enginecycle.

Remember when you were flying piston powered airplanes? If it had a gold powerplant, it was manufactured by Teledyne Continental Motors. I've always been of the opinion that if that's what the factory calls it, I can too..

A motor converts potential energy into mechanic work (usually rotational). Hydraulic and electrical motors arre common.

An engine converts chemical/thermodynamic energy into mechanical work...by definition it uses fuel of some sort.

Vacuum cleaners have motors. Cars and airplanes have engines.

Took the words right out of my mouth.:D

-Ben

How about when they call the TCAS "the fish finder"...

that's a little annoying. :-P

You do realize that chemical and thermodynamic energy IS potential energy, right? Thus making making engines motors?