Posted on 06/19/2008 11:50:26 AM PDT by MaestroLC
Some Duke professors are challenging the conventional "miles per gallon" terminology employed by the automobile industry.
Researchers with Duke's Fuqua School of Business say that posting a vehicle's fuel efficiency in "gallons per mile" rather than "miles per gallon" would help motorists make better decisions when buying a new car.
The study will appear in the June 20 issue of Science magazine. It was inspired by a debate professors Richard Larrick and Jack Soll had while carpooling in a hybrid car, according to a Duke press release.
The two management professors ran experiments showing current "miles per gallon" terminology led consumers to think fuel consumption goes down at an even rate as efficiency improves.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
And suppose the question was how many miles can you get out of a tank of gas? Don't you think people buy a car with that in mind? How would knowing gallons per mile help easier than knowing miles per gallon?
Hey! How about we invent a solution to a problem that really doesent exist? What's the Duke University phone number?
Drams per parsec?
I prefer “rounds per minute”.......
“I prefer hours of operation per pound of fuel”
I do too but I can’t afford the plane that burns it!
This sounds like a sub plot for an episode of “Big Bang Theory”
There is an additional reason not named in the article which would make this presentation very helpful. A person with a car that gets more miles per gallon may compensate by driving more and end up using the same amount of gas. Specifying gallons per mile focuses one's attention more on the amount of gas actually being used rather than how far you can go.
Also it would be helpful in comparisons with vehicles such as boats that actually do use multiple gallons per mile.
What on earth are you talking about?
The planes is not the expense; it depreciates such that it costs nothing -— the pilots, however, are damn expensive.
When we’re having congressional hearings and proposed sweeping new laws based on range per tank of gas, working in miles per gallon would make things easier.
For the problems of today, clarity about fuel economy is more important.
Besides, the public school graduates who couldn’t figure range from gallons per mile largely can’t figure range from miles per gallon either. Those people are why there’s still a quarter of a tank left when the needle hits E.
Wrong.
The story doesn't say anything of the kind; there is nothing approaching an actual description of the experiments performed. Until I see the methodology and the practical applicability of the experiment, my comment stands, unchallenged. Furthermore, there is no demonstration of an actual use-case where this information provides a superior presentation. Not surprisingly, because there is none.
“Conservatives are reviled by today’s [self defined] more-educated youth”
because every generation of liberals thinks they are smarter and wiser than anyone else that ever existed in history,
until they grow up and figure out that traditional values actually DO work better, and they aren’t so damn smart after all.
I'm more of a "furlongs per fortnight" kind of guy.
I get 544,320 rods per hogshead.
Cost per mile. 20mpg gas $4.40 equals $.22 per mile.
“the pilots, however, are damn expensive”
I’m the pilot but I haven’t founf a jet that fits my budget.
Get a VLJ.
I agree with that one, as it will also factor in the cost of electricity for hybrid cars.
Plus, it’s an eye-opener when you realize that it cost over $1 to travel 5 miles.
“Get a VLJ.”
Got a spare million you would like to DONATE for the purchase?
I guess I dont mind when the auto manufacturer gives me a whole number rating that tells me a couple useful things about my car; like what its range is (miles per gallon) and what its efficiency is.
Remixing everything so that the 90 IQ's can do efficiency comparisons in their head with fractional numbers (!) seems to me both stupid and useless. I doubt Joesephine Sixpack will use it in a way that would jusify Pinheads 1 and 2 clever idea to regulate the auto industry one more time ; in a trivial, unjustifiable way
Anybody who thinks today's youth are more educated hasn't taught undergrads very recently. I have: it's like running a high-school.
Conservatives are reviled by today's "more educated" youth because these utes are wasting their time remediating elementary arithmentic instead of learning genuine economics. If Duke Professors want to edify the public, they ought to spend some time explaining why gasoline is so expensive, instead of wasting bandwidth and paper on trivial conversions. There is no difference between miles per gallon and gallons per mile. If the public were not so innumerate, articles like these would be laughed off the Internet.
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