BizJournals Portfolio
Home >   Business Views, Opinions and Blogs >   Business Blogs >   Market Movers >  

Invert Gas Mileage

Market Movers

by Felix Salmon
Main
Index Fund Fees, Expensive Tastes, and the Dijon Mustard Paradox   Ben Stein Watch: June 22, 2008

Recent Blog Posts

Links

Jun 22 2008 12:00am EDT

Invert Gas Mileage!

Dan Ariely makes a good point: why do we talk about miles per gallon, when gallons per 100 miles would be a much more useful and intuitive measure?

The primacy of mpg as a metric means lots of attention paid to things like the Progressive Automotive X Prize, which will give $10 million to the first team to come up with a viable 100mpg car. But the amount of gas saved by moving from 30mpg to 100mpg is about 2.3 gallons per 100 miles, while the amount of gas saved by moving from 15mpg to 30mpg is about 3.3 gallons per 100 miles. If we are to save gas, it's much better to concentrate on building more attractive cars in the 30-40mpg range than to strive to reach the 100mpg goal.

Update: Bialik is on the same page.

blog comments powered by Disqus
Real Business, Real Results
Out of the 'Family'

Did anyone at Microsoft ever watch the (gasp!) offensively funny show Family Guy?

Cruz Missile Lands

Ex-Morgan Stanley exec Zoe Cruz is now heading her own hedge fund. Are Wall Street's leaders done?

Scandal Chic

Martha, Bernie and Skilling know that what you wear for court can go a long way in public perception.

spotlight on

Health Care

Bad to the Bone No More

Companies such as General Mills say they're stepping up efforts to change employees' bad behavior and promote healthier lifestyles. Read More