Heat engine

In engineering and thermodynamics, a heat engine performs the conversion of heat energy to mechanical work by exploiting the temperature gradient between a hot "source" and a cold "sink". Heat is transferred to the sink from the source, and in this process some of the heat is converted into work.

References

• {{Book reference | Author=Kroemer, Herbert; Kittle, Charles | Title=Thermal Physics (2nd ed.) | Publisher=W. H. Freeman Company | Year=1980 | ID=ISBN 0716710889}}