In thermodynamics, motive power is an agency, such as water or steam, used to impart motion. Generally, motive power is defined as a natural agent, as water, steam, wind, electricity, etc., used to impart motion to machinery; a motor; a mover. The term may also define something, as a locomotive or a motor, which provides motive power to a system. In current use, motive power may be thought of as a synonym for either "work", i.e. force times distance, or "power", an effect producing motion, depending on the context of the discussion.
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Famous quotes containing the words motive power, motive and/or power:
“The short lesson that comes out of long experience in political agitation is something like this: all the motive power in all of these movements is the instinct of religious feeling. All the obstruction comes from attempting to rely on anything else. Conciliation is the enemy.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)
“Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
“Power and violence are opposites; where the one rules absolutely, the other is absent. Violence appears where power is in jeopardy, but left to its own course it ends in power’s disappearance.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)