Gas mileage is the distance you can travel in your vehicle on one unit volume of gas. In general, it is usually expressed as miles per gallon (mpg) or kilometers per liter (kpl). To find the gas mileage, you take the distance you have traveled-say from Boston to New York-and divide it by the number of gallons or liters of gasoline that you used.

The equation for finding gas mileage is:

GM = D/G

where

GM = Gas Mileage

D = Distance Traveled

G = Amount of Gasoline

Rick and his family drove from Los Angeles to San Diego for the SuperBowl game. The odometer read 22,320 miles at the beginning of the trip, and 22,560 miles at the end. They used 14 gallons of gas to travel that distance. On the window sticker of their new car, the EPA* estimated of 14 mpg in the city and 19 mpg on the highway. What is the estimated mpg of their car for this trip?

* Environmental Protection Agency

GM = D/G

GM = D/G

GM = (22,560 - 22,320)/14

GM = 240/14

GM = 17 mpg

This mileage is within the EPA estimation.


Chris and his family went to San Francisco for a trip. They came from San Diego. When the gas tank was filled, the odometer reading was 10,231.4. When they got to the next gas station, the odometer read 10,432.6 miles.  The average gas mileage of the their car is 26 mpg and the gas tank has a capacity of 15 gallons. To arrive at first gas station, he had to fill up his tank. How much gasoline did they use in the first part of their trip?

Estimate the answer:

  5 gallons of gas
8 gallons of gas
15 gallons of gas
20 gallons of gas