How to work out your gas mileage
04-15-2010, 12:16 PM
#1
Intended acceleration
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How to work out your gas mileage
You will need:-
After a while, you will have a collection of receipts. The first one is useless, but all the rest are good. Each receipt should have the date, the number of gallons of gas bought, and the number of miles that your car travelled on that much gas.
Miles per gallon = number of miles / number of gallons.
- An RX8 with a working trip counter
- A pen or pencil
- A gas station which has automatic shutoff pumps and which prints out receipts
- Fill the tank until the automatic latch shuts off the gas flow.
- Get the receipt.
- Write the number from the trip counter on the receipt.
- Zero the trip.
After a while, you will have a collection of receipts. The first one is useless, but all the rest are good. Each receipt should have the date, the number of gallons of gas bought, and the number of miles that your car travelled on that much gas.
Miles per gallon = number of miles / number of gallons.
04-15-2010, 12:27 PM
#4
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This is what I do. My question though is how consistent are the auto-shutoff's at the fuel tank? Is how much gas you put in really how much gas you burned? I guess this is only a factor if you are calculating mpg for one tank of gas. If you average several tanks of gas this factor will be mitigated.
04-15-2010, 12:27 PM
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Make sure you divide the result by the number of idiots within 10 miles or by the number of cylinders your neighbor thinks you have. Whichever is higher.
Keep the real number to yourself, no one believes it is that high anyway.
Keep the real number to yourself, no one believes it is that high anyway.
04-15-2010, 12:41 PM
#6
Intended acceleration
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This might seem obvious to some, but I've seen a lot of posts from people who're trying to do estimates based on things like the position of the fuel gauge, and I just wanted to show how easy it is to do it right.
@Mr.ThunderMakeR: Yes, the operation of the latch mechanism might introduce a certain error (does anyone know how big it might be?) As you say, doing an average (total miles / total gallons) for several fill-ups will tend to remove that error.
@Mr.ThunderMakeR: Yes, the operation of the latch mechanism might introduce a certain error (does anyone know how big it might be?) As you say, doing an average (total miles / total gallons) for several fill-ups will tend to remove that error.
04-16-2010, 07:47 AM
#10
zoom-zoom
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i just keep a small notebook in my glovebox. i just write down the date, mileage, gallons, cost and figure the mpg. i also write all of my maintenance in the same notebook. easy to keep track of that way.
04-17-2010, 10:34 AM
#14
Momentum Keeps Me Going
FYI ... this isn't algebra, applied or otherwise ... simple division is what's required here, and sadly even that's a skill not all have attained. Even with an iphone app you'll need to "know" the numbers...I think...whatever that means. BTW, it's the students, not the schools that are failing ...in math ...and apparently in English as well.
04-18-2010, 02:19 AM
#18
I zoom therefore I am.
04-18-2010, 11:13 AM
#20
Huge hole is huge
04-18-2010, 01:23 PM
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Weird.
Usually I just fill up one gallon at a time, see how long I can go before I have to call AAA to give me enough gas to the nearest gas station, fill up another gallon, run out again and so on and so forth.
Usually I just fill up one gallon at a time, see how long I can go before I have to call AAA to give me enough gas to the nearest gas station, fill up another gallon, run out again and so on and so forth.