Question

The Jensen family took a trip in September. Sally is calculating the gas mileage in miles per gallon for her dads SUV. When he fills the tank ,her dad records the miles on the SUV as 24033. Her dad pays $83.58 I fill up the empty gas tank of the SUV. At the destination, there was a quarter tank of gas left in the vehicle and the miles where recorded as 24,297. Use a ratio equation to determine the gas mileage in miles per gallon for the trip. Round your answer to the nearest whole.

Answer 1

Answer:

The gas mileage formula in miles per gallon (mpg) is:

$gas mileage=\frac{miles driven}{gallons used}$   (1)

We know that Sally’s dad filled the tank when it was empty and the miles recorded in the SUV were 24033 miles.

We also know that at the destination, there was a quarter tank of gas left in the vehicle and the miles were recorded as 24297 miles.  

This means that the miles driven during the whole trip were 894 miles:

$24927 miles-24033 miles=894 miles$

If at the beginning the tank was full and at the end is left with a quarter tank ($\frac{1}{4}$), this means that the car wasted $\frac{3}{4}$ of the tank:

$\frac{4}{4}-\frac{1}{4}=\frac{3}{4}$

Now, SUVs come in so many different sizes and models, hence it is difficult to assume an average size for a SUV gas tank. It may vary from the smaller ones that hold 16.5 gallons to larger SUVs that hold from 28 to 33.5 gallons.

In this case let’s assume that the tank holds 28 gallons

Then, if 1 tank holds 28 gallons, $\frac{3}{4}$ of a tank holds 21 gallons.

Knowing this, let’s apply the mileage formula ( equation 1):

$\frac{894 miles}{21 gallons}=42.571mpg$    

If we round the result we have, the gas mileage in miles per gallon for the Jensen’s SUV is 43mpg