what is the difference between a mazda engine (rotary) vs a honda engine for example (conventional engine)?

Answer 1

In a piston engine the pistons move up and down in their cylinders. A connecting rod transfers this movement to a crankshaft, thus allowing the up and down movement to be changed to a rotational movement that works to rotate the drive wheels.

In a rotary engine you don't have pistons, but instead 2 triangular rotors. The rotors rotate in a housing and each side of the rotor is a combustion chamber. A standard 2 rotor engine has 6 sides (2x 3 sides of the triangle) and acts like a 6 cylinder engine. The big difference is that a standard rotary engine is not much bigger than a bowling ball bag. Lots of power from a very small, light package.

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Answer 2

Nelson is close. It has more to do with the pistons in the engine than the shape of it. In a conventional engine the pistons are round and are going up and down inside of the cyclinder. In a rotary the piston is kind of triangular and spins inside of the cyclinder.....man there is no easy way to explain this. That's is about as laymen terms as I can get.

Answer 3

A rotary engine goes in a circle like some aircraft engines. Normal engines are laid out in a V or possible a square.