Question

Would you rather drive 0.3 miles to fill up for $3.59 per gallon OR drive 1.2 miles to fill up for $3.41 per gallon?Please explain your reasoning.Thank you

Answer 1

We know that, in the US, the average mile per gallon was 25 mpg in 2015. Since we don't have the mile per gallon of the car in our problem, we are going to use that average.
For our first situation, drive 0.3 miles to fill up for $3.59 per gallon:
$\frac{25miles-----\ \textgreater \ 1gallon}{0.3miles-----\ \textgreater \ xgallons}$
$\frac{25}{0.3} = \frac{1}{x}$
$x= \frac{(1)(0.3)}{25}$
$x=0.012$
We just proved that in our trip, we used 0.012 gallon, and at $3.59 per gallon; we will pay  (0.012)(3.59)=$0.04 for that gasoline.

For our second situation, drive 1.2 miles to fill up for $3.41 per gallon:
$\frac{25miles-----\ \textgreater \ 1gallon}{1.2miles-----\ \textgreater \ xgallons}$
$\frac{25}{1.2} = \frac{1}{x}$
$x= \frac{(1)(1.2)}{25}$
$x=0.048$
We just proved that in our trip, we used 0.048 gallon, and at $3.41 per gallon; we will pay  (0.048)(3.41)=$0.16 for that gasoline.

We can conclude that is much better to drive 0.3 miles to fill up for $3.59 per gallon than drive 1.2 miles to fill up for $3.41 per gallon.