to keep it really simple it goes like this..
in ic engines(internal combustion engines) we get power by burning fuels like petrol(spark ignited) or diesel (compression ignited) (though other alternate fuels are used). in 2 stroke engines there is one combustion in every 2 strokes,i.e, for every two up/down movement of piston. on the other hand in 4 stroke engines for every 4 strokes(up/down movement of piston) there is one combustion.

now as far as the cylinders are concerned..
the capacity of cylinders are usually given in cc(cubic centimeters) or litres.. you can have a good range of them. to have more balance and to get better power it is advisable to have multiple cylinders instead of just one cylinder. for example a maruti alto car is roughly 800 cc. instead of having one big cylinder with 800cc capacity they split the volume into 3 cylinders. so it is a 3 cylinder engine.
bigger sized engines can go from 4 to 6 to 12.. even 16 cylinder engines are available i guess... you might have come across terms like 4 in-line, v6 etc. they are just the arrangement of cylinders. like 4 cylinders in line or 6 cylinders arranged in a v pattern with 3 on each side at an angle(i think its 180deg not really sure though)

amkhilz

to keep it really simple it goes like this..
in ic engines(internal combustion engines) we get power by burning fuels like petrol(spark ignited) or diesel (compression ignited) (though other alternate fuels are used). in 2 stroke engines there is one combustion in every 2 strokes,i.e, for every two up/down movement of piston. on the other hand in 4 stroke engines for every 4 strokes(up/down movement of piston) there is one combustion.

now as far as the cylinders are concerned..
the capacity of cylinders are usually given in cc(cubic centimeters) or litres.. you can have a good range of them. to have more balance and to get better power it is advisable to have multiple cylinders instead of just one cylinder. for example a maruti alto car is roughly 800 cc. instead of having one big cylinder with 800cc capacity they split the volume into 3 cylinders. so it is a 3 cylinder engine.
bigger sized engines can go from 4 to 6 to 12.. even 16 cylinder engines are available i guess... you might have come across terms like 4 in-line, v6 etc. they are just the arrangement of cylinders. like 4 cylinders in line or 6 cylinders arranged in a v pattern with 3 on each side at an angle(i think its 180deg not really sure though)

Thanks Mate, yes there is a concept car from Cadillac which has 16 cylinders, it's called the Cadillac Sixteen.