How does a car work?

Letitia Bigelow: Go to www.howstuffworks.com and search cars.

Bettye Arre: Fred Flintstone's car is a simple example of a car... It is a frame with wheels that provides transportation to anyone sitting in it.However, Fred had a very hard time steering the big roller of a front wheel and found that the wooden frame was so light that he could roll the vehicle on four round stones instead of two big rollers. Two small round ones could be turned which made steering much easier.Roads were rocky back in Fred's day and with the disovery of metal and things like gears and pulleys, the wheels of Fred's car were put on springs to soften the ride over rocks and holes. Gears made the steering easier too.Fred's feet were still suffering though since they had to get the whole thing rolling and then stop it all the time too. When he finally made it to the top of a big hill, he couldn't stop the car coming down the other side so they invented brakes. A metal drum or disk was at! tached to each wheel and when a pedal was pushed with Fred's feet, pads squeezed against the drum or disk and stopped it from turning which slowed the car to a stop. When he stopped pushing the pedal, the pads relaxed on the drum or disk and he could push the car forward again.As the years past, people saw inventions making life easier and they took such inventions and made things easier for them on their car too. When the engine was made, they found that burning gasoline (produced from all the tar pits in the neighborhood) could turn the wheels for Fred instead of using his feet. They had to disconnect the engine from the wheels to stop so they invented a clutch which disconnected the engine with the push of another pedal near the brake.While this was great at the time, the engine would make the car go only as fast or slow as the engine which sometimes couldn't make it up a hill or was too fast to drive in town. With the addition of some more gears and a selector to ch! oose which gears would be used, the first transmission was mad! e. With that Fred could disconnect the engine with his foot on the clutch and pick which gear he wanted so he could drive either slow or fast with much less trouble on the engine.That's the basics... the rest of the advancements came from people getting lazier and lazier, and wanting all the conveniences that new advancements could provide. A heater, a cooler, radio, windshield, windshield wipers, washers, spare tire, horn, cushioned seats, mirrors... lights... The list is almost endless.Once the basic needs of everyone seemed to be met, they started perfecting each system so they could produce the same product as cheaply as they could. This process remains in the forefront of automobile production as we know it today.If you want to know specific details in modern terms, I suggest you get this book: "Modern Automotive Technology" by James E. Duffy. ISBN #1-56637-610-6http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1566376106/103-37...Pretty broad question... I had fun though!...Show m! ore

Ronnie Sardi: A car burns the fuel which moves a piston in a cylinder, and the movement is transfered to wheels so that the whole car moves.The user is given an option to control this movement, to increase it as well as to decrease.The rest all are frills.......Show more