The difference between machines and robots

You might have come across the question "How do you differentiate between a machine and a robot?" Let's try to understand this with a simple example of a fan and an air conditioner.

Imagine how a fan works. When you turn on the switch, the fan starts working, and when you turn off the switch, the fan stops working. In a simple statement, a fan takes an input (turn on/off the switch) and directly gives us an output (it either starts moving in a clockwise direction in the on condition or stops working when the switch is off).

A machine is something that takes an input and directly gives you an output. Can you think of at least four such machines in and around you and write them down?

Names of the machines around you:

The following figure represents the input and output mechanism in a fan:

Figure 1.1 – Input/output mechanism of a fan

Now, let's try to understand how an air...