Engine in thrust. Particularly notable kinds of engines include: Engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one form of energy into mechanical energy. Heat engines burn a fuel to create heat which is then used to do work. Internal combustion engines are heat engines that burn fuel in a combustion chamber to extract work from the pressure of expanding gases. Electric motors convert electrical energy into mechanical motion; pneumatic motors use compressed air; and clockwork motors in wind-up toys use elastic energy. In biological systems, molecular motors, like myosins in muscles, use chemical energy to create forces
Potential energy distance at which "U" becomes zero: formula_34 and formula_35. The choice of formula_36 at infinity may seem peculiar, and the consequence that gravitational energy is always negative may seem counterintuitive, but this choice allows gravitational potential energy values to be finite, albeit negative. The singularity at formula_34 in the formula for gravitational potential energy means that the only other apparently reasonable alternative choice of convention, with formula_36 for formula_34, would result in potential energy being positive, but infinitely large for all nonzero values of "r", and would make calculations involving sums or differences of potential energies beyond what is possible