I just finished an online 40 question quiz on engines. Most concerned Otto cycle gasoline with a couple for diesel with about 5 concerning forced induction, electronic engine control, and emissions. I scored 39 of 40 but disagree with the supposedly incorrect answer. Question: During the exhaust stroke the exhaust gasses exit through the? There were a couple of nonsense answers plus “tail pipe” or “thermal exhaust port”. I have never ran across the term “thermal exhaust port” but know the hot (thermal?) exhaust gasses exit the exhaust port during the exhaust stroke and are sent on their way to the tail pipe while the engine continues with it’s strokes. The “correct” quiz answer was tail pipe. Is “thermal exhaust port” an actual non-automotive term? Now is the time for the engineers to shine!
The only reference I can find to a thermal exhaust port is on the Death Star. I agree that the “correct” answer is not the most correct answer, though it appears to be the most correct from the choices you list. Exhaust port would be the most correct answer to me since it is part of the engine, and thermal exhaust port seems close.
Thank you. Unless it is an actual technical term the engineers can stand down. I woke up and did a search. It is the armor chink that allowed destruction of the Death Star. I guess I have to remember a film I have not seen in 37 years. It is also an “instrumental” from an indie band called Buckethead. A band I have never heard of. I watched their YouTube video. It was muted clips from the film accompanied by crappy mostly synthesized “music”. 3 minutes I will never get back. I still dispute that exhaust gasses do not have time to exit the tail pipe “during” the exhaust stroke.
I’ve never heard the term. “Thermal Exhaust Port” would suggest an exhaust port that somehow uses thermal energy to accomplish the task of (trans)porting the spent gasses out, as opposed to a normal exhaust port that simply opens and allows the piston to push the exhaust gas out. IMHO the answer was among the choices to see if you really knew the answer.
I took one of these online quizzes recently and one of the questions was about air cooled engines. The answers were “runs hotter”, “runs cooler” and a third answer that made no sense whatsoever. Their correct answer was “runs hotter”. The writer never rode in an air cooled VW Beetle in winter. I owned a '61 Beetle. An air cooled engine does not automatically run hotter. It simply is more susceptible to ambient temperatures. If it’s hot out, it runs hotter. If it’s cold out, it runs cooler. That’s why they’re no longer used in cars; the engine temperature cannot be regulated well enough to keep emissions down. It was the only question I missed… but if it had included an intelligent answer I’d have aced the quiz.
I enjoy taking these online quizzes, but they aren’t always correct. As a matter of fact, college textbooks even have errors. Some colleagues of mine from the college I retired from get paid to proofread technical textbooks for the publishers, and you’d be surprised how common errors are. I’ve even stumbled on a few myself while prepping to teach a course.
Definitely a Star Wars reference. The quiz was clearly written by someone of a certain age.
Sounds like the test was rigged up by someone who has little if any actual experience with an engine.
I agree with you about your dispute that exhaust gas does not have time to exit the tail pipe during the exhaust stroke.
I ran across a test recently regarding military aircraft and thought one of the questions there was ludicrous. In a nutshell, it asked which fighter is so good that there’s no need to manufacture any more?
The answer was the F-22; an aircraft with a mission capable rate of about 60-70%.
According to that source it will only be exceeded by the F-35 which is quite likely going to be the most expensive boondoggle of all time at 1.5 trillion dollars and still counting…
Hey, I resemble that remark! 
That sounds like the same quiz. I picked “runs hotter” because I have seen air cooled engines heat up a bit if the vehicle is not moving in hot weather. I was thinking the “Thermal Exhaust Port” could have had something to do with jet or rocket propulsion. When I discovered it was total fiction from Star Wars, I decided the quiz creator was probably one of the geeks who could explain in detail how a warp drive works but fail to successfully change the radiator cap on a motor vehicle. LOL! I have a feeling if I searched for “Internal Combustion Engine” and chose Wikipedia I would find the quiz Q&As pretty much in the same order since the first question was concerning the year the Otto cycle was invented.
LOL, OK4450, I love it! That may be one of the dumbest questions of all time. Military aircraft, all military aircraft, are designed to accomplish mission profiles that often aree very different. A B1 has a different mission profile than a B52 has/had. An F18 has a different mission profile than an F22. An SR71 has/had a different mission profile than an F4. My son tells me that the A10 Warthog is the best attack fighter in the inventory (well, it was in 2012 when he told me that… and he’d just returned from a “black OPs” tour of the “hot zones” in Afghanistan, so I absolutely believe him). But the A10 can’t compete with the B52 in “carpet bombing”… and a B52 wouldn’t make a very good attack fighter.
These quizzes can be fun, but they can’t be taken seriously.