Outside of the technical issues, there is a concern about turning foodâcorn in the U.S.âinto fuel. Partially driven by an 8-percent rise in corn orders from ethanol plants, corn prices doubled in the last six months of 2010 and are expected to continue rising. There are benefits to ethanol, of course. It has a higher octane rating, so it supports a higher compression ratio and more aggressive ignition timing. Like its cousin methanol, with its high octane and clean burn, ethanol makes a good racing fuel. NASCAR, a politically astute organization, is running E85 this season.
I agree with Diane that with this meaning of the word cylinder it has 3 faces, 2 edges and no vertices. There is however a technical meaning of the word cylinder that results in a different answer.
You can see in the illustration that this is a five-cylinder engine -- radial engines typically have anywhere from three to nine cylinders. The radial engine has the same sort of pistons, valves and spark plugs that any four-stroke engine has. The big difference is in the crankshaft. Instead of the long shaft that's used in a multi-cylinder car engine, there is a single hub -- all of the piston's connecting rods connect to this hub.