Question

EXPLAIN YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS, and be sure to state your as- sumptions!! This is the most important part of your grade, more important than the actual number you determine. The following problems are NOT research problems (no google-ing), nor should they require detailed measurements or calculations

the question---- How many gallons of gasoline are used in the United States each day?

Answer 1

Assume two cars for every three people, that each car is driven an average of 10,000 per year, and that the average car gets 20 miles per gallon.

Let the population be P
C = 2 P / 3 the number of cars in the US
M = 10,000 * C = 20,000 P / 3 total miles driven in one year
Gy = 20,000 P / (3 * 20) = 1000 P / 3 total gallons used in 1 year
Gd = 1000 P / (3 * 365) = .91 P gallons used in a day
So say the population is 310 million then
282 million gallons would be used each day