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what is the difference between heat engine and Carnot engine?
A heat engine is a device that converts heat or thermal energy into mechanical motion that can be used to do work. It can attained by bringing a working substance from a lower state temperature to a high state temperature. A heat "source" generates thermal energy that brings the working substance to the high temperature state. The working substance generates work in the "working body" of the engine while transferring to the colder "sink" until it reaches a low temperature state. During this process some of the thermal energy is converted into work by exploiting the properties of the working substance. The working substance can be any system with a non-zero heat capacity, but it usually is a gas or liquid.

                 An advantage of heat engines is that most forms of energy can be easily converted to heat by processes like exothermic reactions (such as combustion), absorption of light or energetic particles, friction,dissipation and resistance. Since the heat source that supplies thermal energy to the engine can thus be powered by virtually any kind of energy, heat engines are very versatile and have a wide range of applicability.

               A Carnot engine is a reversible heat engine.The Carnot engine or the Carnot cycle is important because it describes a heat engine that uses reversible processes that can be handled theoretically.
If the efficiency of the Carnot engine is ec. Then suppose the efficiency of some real heat engine, er, is greater than that of the Carnot engine,
er > ec


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