8 ms·

It’s interesting how “turbo” has had so much semantic drift that people don’t even know it’s a specific component in an engine. They just think it means “fast”.

It’s interesting how “turbo” has had so much semantic drift that people don’t even know it’s a specific component in an engine. They just think it means “fast”. Wouldn’t be surprised to eventually see a “turbo” trim levels for EVs someday.

neogodless 1y ago
https://finder.porsche.com/us/en-US/details/porsche-macan-turbo-electric-new-EPMOE0 https://finder.porsche.com/us/en-US/details/porsche-macan-tu... Too late.
- tim333 1y ago
  Although that is an electric equivalent of an actual turbo car rather than just trim.
  - neogodless 1y ago
    Well, the Taycan is electric only, and has a Turbo trim! https://www.porsche.com/usa/models/taycan/taycan-models/taycan-turbo-s/ https://www.porsche.com/usa/models/taycan/taycan-models/tayc...
m3kw9 1y ago
Was gonna say, do they know how turbos work?
CGMthrowaway 1y ago
In fairness, they put "turbocharged" in quotes.
762236 1y ago
With the right level of abstraction, we can say that there's only one of four fundamental forces generating the birds' and engine work, electromagnetism, and so maybe can work a relationship about turbos in that way.
- kridsdale1 1y ago
  Flight relies on gravity. And I wouldn’t want to be a bird experiencing a sudden loss of the Strong or Weak force.
jchw 1y ago
Using "turbocharged" as a metaphor for something being made faster seems reasonable enough to me. Not all engines have turbochargers, installing one makes it perform better by improving combustion, profit? Of course I'm not a car person so my understanding of an ICE is pretty surface level, but it seems like a decent metaphor. I'm not sure most people knew what a turbocharger was to begin with.
- nh23423fefe 1y ago
  but thats the semantic drift right? imagine if i said something like, "after removing all extraneous weight and safety features, my car has been turbocharged." kinda nonsensical imo, if someone said this i'd just assume they lacked a thesaurus
- neogodless 1y ago
  > The scientists found that birds experiencing the “migration” condition had more mitochondria, and that those mitochondria had a greater capacity to make energy (opens a new tab), compared to those in the “nonmigratory” birds. This suggested that during migration, the birds’ mitochondria are “turbocharged,” Coulson said. So this isn't too terrible. It's a bit more like overclocking than turbocharging. A typical ICE turbocharger is a recycler - the exhaust gases are used to spin the turbo which in turn forces air/oxygen into the combustion chamber (cylinder) at a faster rate, which can be tuned alongside fuel intake for increased power. Of course, this tends to be harder on the engine and must be accounted for in engine design. It's not free, and you don't want every engine to be turbo. And rather than be good for endurance it's really good for bursts of power.
  - hinkley 1y ago
    Rocket engines have turbochargers that run before primary combustion. Just to make things more confusing.
    - neogodless 1y ago
      Presumably not off exhaust? In automobiles, if they are powered by something other than exhaust (e.g. electricity) are called "superchargers." Ah quick web search, I believe they do run off exhaust using "pre-burners" that burn before the burn.
nh23423fefe 1y ago
kinda double weird when ATP synthase is said to be a molecular turbine. we put a turbo in your turbo
- hinkley 1y ago
  Not enough people are old enough to get the more accurate analogy which would be multiple carburetors.
- kridsdale1 1y ago
  One of my all time favorite molecules. Up there with Actin and DNA itself. Biology is crazy, man.
  - nh23423fefe 1y ago
    collagen!
SoleilAbsolu 1y ago
Haha as a car enthusiast, whenever I see "turbo" my next thought is always the inherent downside, "turbo lag" (the non-zero time it takes for the turbo to actually kick in)!
- hinkley 1y ago
  I’m a little surprised we don’t have mild hybrids with blowers on them. Split the turbocharger into a recovery unit, genset, a supercharger and a battery and no more lag.
  - MadnessASAP 1y ago
    Weight, size, cost, and loss of efficiency. There are better things you could do to increase engine performance that are lighter, smaller, and cheaper. Also of you really really want to defeat turbo lag. The easiest way is to seriously delay ignition timing so the fuel is still burning as it enters the turbine leaving more energy for it to extract and therefore staying spooled up. edit: Not to say your idea wouldn't work, indeed I'd love to see it. Its just not a practical solution. Not that In ever let practicality stop me. Edit to the edit: https://dieselnet.com/tech/engine_whr_turbocompound.php https://dieselnet.com/tech/engine_whr_turbocompound.php https://www.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/deer_2004/session4/2004_deer_hopmann.pdf https://www.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/deer_2004/... So, ya know, disregard everything above.
    - hinkley 1y ago
      There’s been talk for years of just scavenging energy from the exhaust for hybrid drivetrains. To power the peripherals if nothing else. Part of it is that there’s another reason besides a turbo to have a little extra energy left in the exhaust: thermal catalysis of noxious chemicals in the exhaust flow. So there’s a bit of unburned fuel going to the cat for emissions control and people have wondered if we can take some of it back after the converter. For a while every time there was a breakthrough in solid state heat recovery someone mentioned vehicle exhaust.
  - xeonmc 1y ago
gherkinnn 1y ago
You're behind the times, turbo has drifted (heh) far in to meaning 'fast' of sorts: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Pascal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Pascal - https://www.specialized.com/il/en/turbo-levo-4-pro/p/4218703?color=5363218-4218703 https://www.specialized.com/il/en/turbo-levo-4-pro/p/4218703... - https://turbo.hotwired.dev https://turbo.hotwired.dev (Drifts right back to turbo charger, but using one as the logo) Or it can be used to amplify as in "Turbo Clippy": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42865194 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42865194
- hinkley 1y ago
  Don’t forget the turbo button, which is almost as old as turbo pascal.
  - jonplackett 1y ago
    I’m curious did anyone here have a turbo button that actually did speed up performance? My 386SX had a turbo button but all it did was turn on a light.
    - acdha 1y ago
      It varied but the older ones definitely had a visible impact if you had something CPU bound running. There was an old helicopter-themed game my dad had which would start running impossibly fast because everything was based on cycle counts rather than actual time.
      - hinkley 1y ago
        I was disappointed to discover that the screen scrolling in Warcraft III was too fast to make large maps usable. I was so excited to find that game used and I couldn’t play it in the early 00’s.
    - hinkley 1y ago
      For most of us it was a misnomer because it was a lag button not a turbo button. It defaulted to on. If you turned it off it would make the machine slower, allowing certain programs to run properly instead of too fast for humans. But we all have stories of a friend whose machine was slow because they hit the button not understanding what it does. For them it did become the turbo button.

neogodless 1y ago

https://finder.porsche.com/us/en-US/details/porsche-macan-turbo-electric-new-EPMOE0 https://finder.porsche.com/us/en-US/details/porsche-macan-tu... Too late.

tim333 1y ago
Although that is an electric equivalent of an actual turbo car rather than just trim.
- neogodless 1y ago
  Well, the Taycan is electric only, and has a Turbo trim! https://www.porsche.com/usa/models/taycan/taycan-models/taycan-turbo-s/ https://www.porsche.com/usa/models/taycan/taycan-models/tayc...

m3kw9 1y ago

Was gonna say, do they know how turbos work?

CGMthrowaway 1y ago

In fairness, they put "turbocharged" in quotes.

762236 1y ago

With the right level of abstraction, we can say that there's only one of four fundamental forces generating the birds' and engine work, electromagnetism, and so maybe can work a relationship about turbos in that way.

kridsdale1 1y ago
Flight relies on gravity. And I wouldn’t want to be a bird experiencing a sudden loss of the Strong or Weak force.

jchw 1y ago

Using "turbocharged" as a metaphor for something being made faster seems reasonable enough to me. Not all engines have turbochargers, installing one makes it perform better by improving combustion, profit? Of course I'm not a car person so my understanding of an ICE is pretty surface level, but it seems like a decent metaphor. I'm not sure most people knew what a turbocharger was to begin with.

nh23423fefe 1y ago
but thats the semantic drift right? imagine if i said something like, "after removing all extraneous weight and safety features, my car has been turbocharged." kinda nonsensical imo, if someone said this i'd just assume they lacked a thesaurus
neogodless 1y ago
> The scientists found that birds experiencing the “migration” condition had more mitochondria, and that those mitochondria had a greater capacity to make energy (opens a new tab), compared to those in the “nonmigratory” birds. This suggested that during migration, the birds’ mitochondria are “turbocharged,” Coulson said. So this isn't too terrible. It's a bit more like overclocking than turbocharging. A typical ICE turbocharger is a recycler - the exhaust gases are used to spin the turbo which in turn forces air/oxygen into the combustion chamber (cylinder) at a faster rate, which can be tuned alongside fuel intake for increased power. Of course, this tends to be harder on the engine and must be accounted for in engine design. It's not free, and you don't want every engine to be turbo. And rather than be good for endurance it's really good for bursts of power.
- hinkley 1y ago
  Rocket engines have turbochargers that run before primary combustion. Just to make things more confusing.
  - neogodless 1y ago
    Presumably not off exhaust? In automobiles, if they are powered by something other than exhaust (e.g. electricity) are called "superchargers." Ah quick web search, I believe they do run off exhaust using "pre-burners" that burn before the burn.

nh23423fefe 1y ago

kinda double weird when ATP synthase is said to be a molecular turbine. we put a turbo in your turbo

hinkley 1y ago
Not enough people are old enough to get the more accurate analogy which would be multiple carburetors.
kridsdale1 1y ago
One of my all time favorite molecules. Up there with Actin and DNA itself. Biology is crazy, man.
- nh23423fefe 1y ago
  collagen!

SoleilAbsolu 1y ago

Haha as a car enthusiast, whenever I see "turbo" my next thought is always the inherent downside, "turbo lag" (the non-zero time it takes for the turbo to actually kick in)!

hinkley 1y ago
I’m a little surprised we don’t have mild hybrids with blowers on them. Split the turbocharger into a recovery unit, genset, a supercharger and a battery and no more lag.
- MadnessASAP 1y ago
  Weight, size, cost, and loss of efficiency. There are better things you could do to increase engine performance that are lighter, smaller, and cheaper. Also of you really really want to defeat turbo lag. The easiest way is to seriously delay ignition timing so the fuel is still burning as it enters the turbine leaving more energy for it to extract and therefore staying spooled up. edit: Not to say your idea wouldn't work, indeed I'd love to see it. Its just not a practical solution. Not that In ever let practicality stop me. Edit to the edit: https://dieselnet.com/tech/engine_whr_turbocompound.php https://dieselnet.com/tech/engine_whr_turbocompound.php https://www.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/deer_2004/session4/2004_deer_hopmann.pdf https://www.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/deer_2004/... So, ya know, disregard everything above.
  - hinkley 1y ago
    There’s been talk for years of just scavenging energy from the exhaust for hybrid drivetrains. To power the peripherals if nothing else. Part of it is that there’s another reason besides a turbo to have a little extra energy left in the exhaust: thermal catalysis of noxious chemicals in the exhaust flow. So there’s a bit of unburned fuel going to the cat for emissions control and people have wondered if we can take some of it back after the converter. For a while every time there was a breakthrough in solid state heat recovery someone mentioned vehicle exhaust.
- xeonmc 1y ago

gherkinnn 1y ago

You're behind the times, turbo has drifted (heh) far in to meaning 'fast' of sorts: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Pascal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Pascal - https://www.specialized.com/il/en/turbo-levo-4-pro/p/4218703?color=5363218-4218703 https://www.specialized.com/il/en/turbo-levo-4-pro/p/4218703... - https://turbo.hotwired.dev https://turbo.hotwired.dev (Drifts right back to turbo charger, but using one as the logo) Or it can be used to amplify as in "Turbo Clippy": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42865194 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42865194

hinkley 1y ago
Don’t forget the turbo button, which is almost as old as turbo pascal.
- jonplackett 1y ago
  I’m curious did anyone here have a turbo button that actually did speed up performance? My 386SX had a turbo button but all it did was turn on a light.
  - acdha 1y ago
    It varied but the older ones definitely had a visible impact if you had something CPU bound running. There was an old helicopter-themed game my dad had which would start running impossibly fast because everything was based on cycle counts rather than actual time.
    - hinkley 1y ago
      I was disappointed to discover that the screen scrolling in Warcraft III was too fast to make large maps usable. I was so excited to find that game used and I couldn’t play it in the early 00’s.
  - hinkley 1y ago
    For most of us it was a misnomer because it was a lag button not a turbo button. It defaulted to on. If you turned it off it would make the machine slower, allowing certain programs to run properly instead of too fast for humans. But we all have stories of a friend whose machine was slow because they hit the button not understanding what it does. For them it did become the turbo button.