system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does a turbo work on a car? And what's the difference with a supercharger?
gpt
A cars engine is effectively an air pump. It sucks air in and blows air out. Fuel, compression, and spark are added to make explosions and power, but the most important limiting factor is air. You don’t really need more spark for more power, nor do you really need more compression from the combustion chamber.. and adding fuel is easy, but it has to be a certain ratio. Every 1 molecule of fuel requires 14 molecules of air. You need a lot of air to make more power. 



The traditional way to get more air is by making the engine bigger. If you have a bigger engine with more room in the cylinders, then more air is moved through it. 


Turbo and superchargers are a different way to solve for the problem. Instead of making the engine bigger, you make the air *denser*. By compressing the air, you force more into the same amount of space, so a smaller engine can move the same volume of air that a larger engine can because the air is more tightly packed as it moves through it. 

Turbocharger compressors are spun by exhaust gasses, which is more efficient, but also typically more peaky and power is less linear. Supercharger compressors are driven directly from the crankshaft via a belt (similar to your alternator). They are less efficient because the belt-drive takes some power away from the engine, but they produce more linear power.