I think I'm weird
I was driving along today, with about 360km on my trip meter. I had about 1/16 of a tank left. So, I was wondering, "What's the fuel economy of this car?" I was thinking in terms of km/tank of fuel. I decided that fuel efficiency was definitely not the correct terminology as that would imply that there was a comparison between how much fuel I used and some minimum amount of fuel possible to be used. So I patted myself on the back, which is no mean feat whilst driving, and continued with my sums. So, I concluded that for this tank I should be able to get 416km to the tank. My calculation was as follows:
I had to divide 360 by 15 and multiply by 16. So, I thought, there are 52 weeks in the year, thus, there are 26 fortights. There are 14 days in a fortnight which is almost 15 and 360 is almost 365. So 360 divided by 15 is roughly 26. Now 26 is almost 25 and 16 is a multiple of 4. So 25 times 4 is one hundred. Of course, it's not much of a jump to get to 26 times four - that's just going to be 104. So, all I had to do was then multiply by 4 again, which gives me 416.
I ended up getting petrol with the needle just above empty with 391km on the clock. Then I got home and ran the calc through the calculator and discovered that 360 divided 15 multiplied by 16 is 384.
So the bottom line is, I was miles out.
I had to divide 360 by 15 and multiply by 16. So, I thought, there are 52 weeks in the year, thus, there are 26 fortights. There are 14 days in a fortnight which is almost 15 and 360 is almost 365. So 360 divided by 15 is roughly 26. Now 26 is almost 25 and 16 is a multiple of 4. So 25 times 4 is one hundred. Of course, it's not much of a jump to get to 26 times four - that's just going to be 104. So, all I had to do was then multiply by 4 again, which gives me 416.
I ended up getting petrol with the needle just above empty with 391km on the clock. Then I got home and ran the calc through the calculator and discovered that 360 divided 15 multiplied by 16 is 384.
So the bottom line is, I was miles out.
posted by BSJ-rom at 9:59 pm
3 Comments:
Don't you mean you were kilometres out?
The needle pointing to E is not a scientific instument. It is a indicator, and a reminder to get petrol soon! No doubt there was 10 - 15 litres left. You do know how to calculate the ratio of petrol used to the distance traveled?
litres per 100km is way more scientific than km to the tank, yes? You don't know how much your tank takes, and you never will because you need some fuel in the bottom to make the car work.
Miles and kilometres are both units of length. I definitely typed miles...
WRT the whole she-bang, the lack of science was the thing that I was noticing. And maybe also the randomness...
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