The combustion chamber in a automobile engine consists of a number of cylinder shaped chambers. Generally the chambers number either four, six or eight, depending on the vehicle. For example, a V-6 engine contains six cylinder chambers. In general, chambers that appear in greater number and have a larger volume, measured ion cubic centimeters (cc), contribute to a more powerful engine. When fuel combusts in the engine, pistons move up and down in these chambers to move the automobile.
Determine the depth of one of the cylinder chambers in centimeters. For example, you may measure the depth to be 10.0 cm.
Measure the diameter of the circular opening of a cylinder chamber. Be sure to measure along a line that passes directly through the center of the circle. Suppose you get a diameter of 8.0 cm.
Divide the diameter by 2 to obtain the radius of the cylinder in centimeters. Performing this step, you will come up with 8.0 cm divided by 2, or 4.0 cm.
Multiply the number pi times the depth times the square of the radius to arrive at the volume of one cylinder chamber in cubic centimeters. Use 3.1415 for the number pi. Completing this step leads you to 3.1415 times 10.0 cm times ( 4.0 cm)^2, where the symbol "^" denotes an exponent. The cylinder chamber volume is 502.6 cc.
Multiply the volume of a single cylinder chamber by the number of chambers present to obtain the cylinder head volume in cubic centimeters. Assuming a 4 cylinder engine, this vehicle has a cylinder head volume of 4 times 502.6 cc, or 2010.4 cc.
