Ah yes, the workings of the internal combustion engine. To me it is a lot like electricity. How does one explain magic? I have always been amazed at my inability to understand all the modern conveniences we enjoy. If someone like Ben Franklin suddenly appeared and asked me all the probing questions only he could ask, I probably couldn't explain a thing to him. Thank goodness he had the electricity part down. But what about TV's, phones, computers, space travel, nuclear power, ad infinitum? I would be embarrassed but I just don't have that kind of mind. As long as things work I'm happy and when they don't I call someone to fix them and hope the guy is fair and honest.

So it is with my car and that thing under the hood. I put gas in my car and from there this is what I think happens. I turn the key which sends a piece of electricity down to a spark plug which ignites a tiny amount of gas in a thing called a carburetor which cause a chain reaction sort of thing, which, thank God, doesn't involve uranium atoms. But a miniature explosion does occurs and causes pistons to go up and down really fast and this energy is transferred to circular movement via the transmission, to the wheels. You see, magic!

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