Why is the displacement of a car measured in cc/litres?

Question

Or rather, why is it called displacement?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

The specific thing being measured is the Engine Displacement, or the total volume swept by all of the pistons within the engine’s cylinders. This displacement correlates with the amount of air ingested by the engine in a single engine cycle (2 full revolutions of the crankshaft for a modern 4-stroke engine). Because the engine functions on the combustion of air and fuel, the displacement is the hard limit on how much air you can run through the engine, and thus how much combustion you can get. More displacement means more power, which in turn means a higher top speed.

Because it’s a measure of volume, it uses units of volume, of which cc and liters are two options.