How an Engine Works: A Car Engine Workbook

How an Engine Works: a car engine workbook. Follow the four strokes, compare petrol and diesel, work out gear ratios and horsepower with real figures, read where a petrol car’s energy goes, and build an engine timeline from 1807 to 1971.

What’s inside:

- Before you start

- The four strokes: name the stroke in four drawings and match the descriptions

- Petrol vs diesel: read the facts and fill in a comparison table

- Gear ratios: twice the teeth, half the speed

- Horsepower: James Watt’s unit, with real engine figures to convert

- Where the energy goes: a chart and four questions

- Timeline 1: the first engines, 1807 to 1899

- Timeline 2: the engine century, 1900 to 1971

- Read your timeline: five questions

- Answer key

- Credits, licence & sources

Pages: 12 (including cover and credits). Sizes: A4 (210 × 297 mm) and US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), both PDFs included in one zip.

Printing: Print at 100% / actual size on A4 or US Letter, so nothing gets squashed. Inside pages use light backgrounds and print well in black and white; covers are dark, so start from page 2 to save ink. Fill-in pages (the timelines and tables) can be printed as often as you need for your own family or class.

Every fact is checked against Encyclopaedia Britannica, the US Department of Energy and NASA Glenn Research Center (checked 3 Nov 2026), and the sources are listed on each pack’s credits page. The drawings and charts are our own, drawn from the checked figures; there are no photos in this pack. Drawings, puzzles and layouts are REALLYBYTE’s own work. Not endorsed by any of the sources.

Licence: personal and single-classroom use. You may print as many copies as you need for your own family or your own class, and share it with your class through a password-protected platform. Please don’t resell, re-upload or share it publicly. For school-wide use, please email info@reallybyte.com.

Made by REALLYBYTE, the team behind engines.motoring.im. Questions: info@reallybyte.com

This is a digital download: no physical item will be shipped.