Vehicles and means of transportation research made by Rafic Abdallah

Means of transportation are very useful to people since their creation. It makes it easier for people to go quickly from a place to another.

Long ago, people used horses and carriages as transportation means. Nowadays we use cars and ships with thermal fuel engines, or electrical engines, or planes with turbojets.  The transition from carriages to cars didn’t happen in one step. At first, a French engineer called Denis Papin (1647-1712) had the idea to use water steam as an energy source. Trains with steam-engines were created, and railways were built across many countries. Some carriages were equipped with steam-engines, and they could be considered as the first automated vehicles, apart from the trains. Then, in 1866, the first car with a thermal fuel engine was created. Back then it had no roof or windshield, and breakdowns were very frequent. Its engine is called a thermal fuel engine because of what happens in it. Inside the engine, there are four hollow tubes that are called cylinders. In every cylinder, there is a piston that moves a certain way to let fuel in so that it explodes with the lit of a candle within. The explosion forces the piston away and gas is liberated, CO _². This explosion liberates energy that allows the car to move.

Ships were wooden and fragile in the past. They were equipped with sails that cause the ship to move. There were many kinds of ships: Men’o’war, frigates, schooners, bricks and much more. Then ships followed the same track as cars. Steam-engine ships and yachts were created and used by the people during the 18^th century. Later, they were replaced with thermal engines that functioned similarly to a car’s engine but that were bigger. The energy generated by the engine would drive one or two propellers situated in the back underwater part of the ship causing the ship to move. Nowadays, ships are made of metal, but they are still vulnerable. For example, the well-known Titanic sank during its first voyage because it hit an iceberg.

Planes were created very recently, in the beginning of the 20^th century. Their predecessors were the hot air balloons, and the dirigible balloon. They used to fly by the power of propellers that spin very quickly using thermal engines to do so. Turboreactors can’t cross the limit of 700km/h, which is a low speed for a plane that is supposed to travel from a country to another. Nowadays, planes use turbojets. Turbojets aspirate the cold air, heat it by burning kerosene, and then reject it backwards with great power that will propel the plane forwards.

Today, many people use cars as their means of transport in short trips, like going to school or to work, and boats and planes for long trips between countries or cities that are far from each other. There are also other means of transport, such as warships, warplanes, helicopters, submarines, etc. All these transportation means are very useful to mankind.

      Written by: Rafic Abdallah

Source: Books