1834 Definition
In 1834, the French mining engineer Emile Clapeyron refers to Carnot’s motive power as “mechanical action”. As an example, during the expansion stroke of a piston engine he states that: “the gas will have developed a quantity of mechanical action during its expansion given by the integral of the product of the pressure times the differential of the volume.” Clapeyron then goes on to use graphical methods to show how this "mechanical action", i.e. work in modern terms, could be calculated.
Read more about this topic: Motive Power
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“It’s a rare parent who can see his or her child clearly and objectively. At a school board meeting I attended . . . the only definition of a gifted child on which everyone in the audience could agree was “mine.””
—Jane Adams (20th century)