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.1

Posted at 11:02 AM on June 10, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

point_9.jpg

Gasoline companies, now you're just mocking us.

Maybe at one time, when gasoline was cheaper than the average $4.06 $4.09 it is in Minnesota today (the ramifications of which were discussed on MPR's Midmorning), tacking on that .9 cents to the price fooled drivers into thinking that the price is, say, $4.09 and not $4.10 a gallon. You toyed with us for generations. But now? Can't you just eat the .9? Or just round the price up. We're used to the price going up by 20, 30 cents at a time, do you really think that a .1 increase is going to bother us?

.1 cents. How much is that, really? Let's figure it out.

* A gallon of gasoline weighs about 6.15 pounds. It actually weighs 6.149 pounds, but I'm living my words here.

* At 6.15 pounds that's 1.5003659429129055867284703586241 pounds per $1, or .015003659429 pounds per penny or -- and you saw this coming, didn't you? -- 0.0015003659429 pounds per tenth of a penny.

* Because so many of you dismissed the run-up in gasoline prices with sentences that started with, "You know, in Europe.... " I bow to your desire to be Europe. So, we switch to grams. And there are 453.59 of them in a pound, or 2,789 grams per gallon. (Cool conversion calculator here)

* There are 4,090 tenths of a penny in the current price of gas. And that's .68 grams of gas per tenth of a penny. For us ugly Americans, that's .02 ounces. A little more than a thimble at today's prices.

And how far can that take you?

Assuming 25 miles to the gallon -- 132,000 feet -- then 1/10th of a penny of gas will get you 32 feet. A year ago, it would get you 45.... point 9... feet.

For those of you who opt for bicycles, 32 feet is about 7 pedal rotations (Note: I'm 54 years old and that's the first time I needed a calculation involving π). So for every 7 pedal rotations, you're saving 1/10th of one cent.

In other gasoline news today...

  • A volunteer for the gasprices.com Web site has determined that the best time to fill up your car at the lowest price is Monday night, and that when it comes to raising prices, SuperAmerica does it first.

  • Some oil pundits are predicting $250 a barrel for oil.

  • The Senate GOP blocked additional taxes on oil companies.

  • Be sure to read Martin Moylan's story on telecommuting. Some employers are getting less antsy about not seeing people in cubicles.

  • Time on your hands today? Play with MPR's various gas calculators.

    Bang the oil drum slowly.

    Comments (5)

    "There are 4,090 tenths of a penny in the current price of gas."

    Not to quibble, but there are 4099 tenths of a penny in the reported price of gas...

    Posted by bsimon | June 10, 2008 11:58 AM

    When I wrote that I just KNEW someone would point that out. (g).

    And to honor the astute nature of the typical News Cut reader, I have recalculated the result and one tenth of a penny gets you 32.20 feet... shortening the distance by a 3/4 of an inch.

    Posted by Bob Collins | June 10, 2008 12:18 PM

    Bob,

    thought you and your readers would like this story I ran across.

    I hope that link works...

    Posted by brian hanf | June 10, 2008 12:46 PM

    They'll ditch the .9 when gas hits $10/gallon and they need the space on the price board for the extra digit.

    Posted by mary | June 10, 2008 1:38 PM

    Nice math, Bob. In a slightly different vein, I'm a fan of local artist Ken Avidor's post-peak oil apocalypse comics called bicyclopolis, where a British explorer (on a bicycle, of course) comes to visit the Twin Cities are 50 years from now.

    Those who have survived the disaster best are the descendants of bike messengers and civil war re-enactors, and there are some great drawings of what the ruins of the Mall of America and our freeway system might look like. I think he's going to publish it as a graphic novel, but it has appeared in a number of magazines thus far.

    Posted by danginmpls | June 10, 2008 2:26 PM

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