things that tilt you

[MadMojoMonkey]

Fuel efficiency being stated as "miles per gallon" instead of "gallons per mile".

If you take gallons (volume - length x length x length) and divide by miles (distance- length), then you get a number whose units are length x length... or area. So if we used gallons per mile, we'd have a number with easy to understand units.

What would that number with those units represent?
Imagine your car's fuel tank is a very long, thin tube... a miles long tube... The tube holds exactly as much gas as your car needs to travel a distance equal to the tube's length. So a thin tube means low fuel consumption, and a thick tube means high fuel consumption.

Low gallons per mile (gpm) means low consumption, high gpm means high consumption. The units are area, which we all understand. That area is the cross-section of a tube which represents your vehicle's consumption.

It just makes so much more sense.

[Lukie]

Fuel efficiency being stated as "miles per gallon" instead of "gallons per mile".

If you take gallons (volume - length x length x length) and divide by miles (distance- length), then you get a number whose units are length x length... or area. So if we used gallons per mile, we'd have a number with easy to understand units.

What would that number with those units represent?
Imagine your car's fuel tank is a very long, thin tube... a miles long tube... The tube holds exactly as much gas as your car needs to travel a distance equal to the tube's length. So a thin tube means low fuel consumption, and a thick tube means high fuel consumption.

Low gallons per mile (gpm) means low consumption, high gpm means high consumption. The units are area, which we all understand. That area is the cross-section of a tube which represents your vehicle's consumption.

It just makes so much more sense.

I fail to see how that makes any of the information easier to understand and/or convey.

Let's use an example. Say my car gets 31 miles per gallon and has a 12 gallon tank. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know. People can understand 31 MPG or that you can travel 372 miles on a full tank (not that I would try!), etc.

That seems better than trying to explain fuel efficiency as .0323 GPM or "a fairly narrow, long tube" and I still don't see why getting a number expressed as area is better. Help me out here.

[MadMojoMonkey]

I fail to see how that makes any of the information easier to understand and/or convey.

Let's use an example. Say my car gets 31 miles per gallon and has a 12 gallon tank. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know. People can understand 31 MPG or that you can travel 372 miles on a full tank (not that I would try!), etc.

That seems better than trying to explain fuel efficiency as .0323 GPM or "a fairly narrow, long tube" and I still don't see why getting a number expressed as area is better. Help me out here.

Quiz time: Which of the following would save more fuel?

a) Replacing a compact car that gets 34 miles a gallon with a hybrid that gets 54 m.p.g.

b) Replacing from an S.U.V. that gets 18 m.p.g. with a sedan that gets 28 m.p.g.

c) Both changes save the same amount of fuel.

The correct answer is b. In fact, going from 18 m.p.g. to 28 m.p.g. saves more than twice as much fuel as going from 34 m.p.g. to 54 m.p.g. (198 gallons vs. 94 gallons), according to two management professors from Duke University.

Taken from this link