Automobiles
The word automobile is derived from the Latin automobile, meaning “car”. Cars are wheeled vehicles with an internal combustion engine. There are many types of automobiles, including passenger cars, motorcycles, vans, trucks, buses and limousines.
Cars are the most common form of transportation in the world, and are used for moving people. However, they can cause pollution and automobile accidents.
There are many ways to make automobiles safer and more convenient. Some of these include adding Safety belts to vehicles, airbags and specialised child restraint systems. Other improvements include structural changes such as side-impact protection bars in the doors and side panels of the car to mitigate the effect of collisions with pedestrians.
How Cars Work
In 1885 German inventor Karl Benz built and patented the world’s first three-wheeled automobile, using the Otto gasoline engine (an internal combustion engine). Other engineers working in Germany, such as Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, also worked on automobiles at the same time.
Benz produced about 25 cars, powered with four-stroke engines of his own design, from 1886 until 1893. During this time, he developed an accelerator for speed regulation, battery ignition system, spark plug, clutch and gear shift.
Other improvements included a radiator for cooling the engine, which became standard by 1893. Other innovations include a fluid coupling, which allows the transmission of motion between two shafts without the use of friction. In addition, modern cars have multiple controls. These controls can be a combination of physical knobs and switches, or secondary touchscreen controls such as BMW’s iDrive or Ford’s MyFord Touch.
