For example, why would a car manufacturer opt to to use a 2.0L in line six instead of a 2.0L in line four in a vehicle. Are the benefits of including more cylinders in an engine worth the added complexity?
In: Engineering
ELI3: I want a burger. Burger place A has a really tasty, thick, double stacked burger. Burger place B has a really tasty thinner and wider burger. They are both the same amount of food.
ELI5: Bigger cylinders means bigger something else, either how wide the pistons are, or how far they move up and down. If they are wider, they are heavier. Heavier is bad when stuff moves. If they move up and down further, the rest of the engine has to be made to accomodate different movement. Those are tradeoffs that might not be acceptable whrn adding mire cylinders can provide the same displacement at the cost of being heavier.
Non ELI5: Larger diameter cylinders, or greater stroke, or both, come with tradeoffs. Adding cylinders is just scaling (mostly) the existing engine mechanics. In addition, it keeps the cylinders the same dimensions without encountering some of those aforementioned tradeoffs, while increasing displacement. Basically, engine design is all about tradeoffs and how you manage them.
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