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2 In 3 Misunderstand Gas Mileage; Here's Why
thecarchik sends in this piece, which was published last March but remains timely: "OK, so here's a little test: Which saves more gasoline, going from 10 to 20 mpg, or going from 33 to 50 mpg? If you're like most Americans, you picked the second one. But, in fact, that's exactly backwards. Over any given mileage, replacing a 10-mpg vehicle with one that gets 20 mpg saves five times the gasoline that replacing a 33-mpg vehicle with one that gets 50 does. Last summer, Duke University's Fuqua School of Business released a study that shows how much damage comes from using MPG instead of consumption to measure how green a car is. Management professors Richard Larick and Jack Soll's experiments proved that consumers thought fuel consumption was cut at an even rate as mileage increased."
What will their next study be? That comparing an apple to an orange is different from comparing a gazelle to a kangaroo?
How about this? Buy the vehicle that gets you the best mileage and still suits your needs.
Oh wait. I didn't piss away somebody's grant money. This can't possibly be right.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Yes. But since USians cannot grok liters (except, funnily, in engine displacements) and kms I wrote "gallons per 100 miles". It basically comes down to the fact that multiplication is easier than division. And if you know your car needs 7 liters per 100 km and you're gonna take a 400 km trip, 4 * 7 = 28 is easier that dividing 400 by whatever.
This article has really one main point. American's are bad at math. They can't even invert a number that is in "miles / gallon" to figure out "gallons / mile" ... which I think is true... most Americans would fail 6th grade math.
E85? Don't you mean E70?
Oh wait, its E85 again.. in 5 months it will be E70 again.. then some months later it will be E85 again... then E70.. then E85... then E70... again...
yeah.. this stuff is great... if only we didn't burn COAL to turn corn into ethanol, making it worse than gasoline... oh.. wait... FUCK.. I told the world how stupid ethanol is... I didn't mean to..
"His name was James Damore."
If a car travels 100km at 5L/100k it uses 5 liters
If a car travels 100km at 10L/100k it uses 10 liters - 100% more.
If a car travels 100km at 15L/100k it uses 15 liters.
If a car travels 100km at 20L/100k it uses 20 liters - 33.3% more.
Looking at the difference in numbers is wrong, you need to look at the ratio.
IOW: Article fail.
No sig today...