Three Phase Generation

Cost of transmission cables.
6 Phases wouldn't be any better but would need twice the cables thus twice the cost.
2 phase would be lumpier, so 3 is a good number.
Del

It seems to me that an awful lot of transmission lines have six wires. I wonder why that is...

"It seems to me that an awful lot of transmission lines have six wires. I wonder why that is..."

Parallel runs to reduce the weight of each conductor.

HOMEWORK ALERT

I'll bet that you'll be surprised to find out that people have tried other combinations of multi-phase systems than just three phases. If you do some simple research (insert favored search engine here) you can find out both why people have tried other combinations and why three phases now dominates power distribution.

Electrical phases are a lot like pizza.

To wit,

Del goes in to the Pizza Queen, says, "gimme a medium deluxe with everything."

Clerk says, "do you want that cut into 4 slices or 6"?

Del says, "make it 4 slices, please. I can't eat 6".

So, there ya have it.

Do your own homework and never order more pizza that you can eat!