Why America's MPG Is A Dumb Unit For Fuel Economy

Miles Per Gallon (mpg) is a dumb unit we use in the United States.
Recommended Books & Car Products - amzn.to/2BrekJm
Subscribe for new videos every Wednesday! - goo.gl/VZstk7
EE Shirts! - bit.ly/2BHsiuo
In the United States, we measure fuel economy with miles per gallon (mpg), rather than gallons per 100 miles, or liters per 100 kilometers. Using distance per volume of fuel consumed causes a rather weird scenario for comparison purposes however, which is perhaps why the rest of the world does the reverse: volume of fuel consumed per distance driven. Enjoy the video to see how the math causes complications with MPG that don't exist when using G/100mi or L/100km.
Engineering Explained is a participant in the Amazon Influencer Program.
Don't forget to check out my other pages below!
Facebook: / engineeringexplained
Official Website: www.howdoesacarwork.com
Twitter: / jasonfenske13
Instagram: / engineeringexplained
Car Throttle: www.carthrottle.com/user/engi...
Amazon: www.amazon.com/shop/engineeri...
EE Extra: / @engineeringexplainede...

[@EngineeringExplained]

If you enjoy watching me throw gallon jugs, you'll love this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g3bUqZR-aZx3itU

[@aaronbearchi]

I was really glad to see this happening again lol

[@luxon4]

mpg is not a bad unit per se, people are just interpreting it wrong. if you only have 1 gallon for every car, mpg is the correct unit and you want the highest mpg (scenario 2). if you say every car has to drive 1 mile, then you want (essentially) the reciprocal of that so you want the lowest gpm (scenario 3). but you cant mix the two numbers cause then it's nonsensical.

[@sammiller5509]

THIS, we need more of this!!!! 0:44 4:57

[@danielhooke6115]

The basis of this video is flawed. Averaging fuel usage across multiple vehicles does not give any useful information. Miles per gallon lets an INDIVIDUAL car owner know how far they can travel on a tank of gas; THAT IS ALL!

[@n8marsh]

The link I needed!

[@BlackPanthaa]

What's even dumber? The UK filling up with litres, into our litres tanks and our cars telling us MPG... that's different to American MPG 🤔

[@fila1445]

Or not finnishing midnight club ? Soz :P

[@Specproof]

This!

[@raminatox]

My country uses kilometers per gallon...

[@wayward03]

The only imperial units that make more sense than metric are feet as it's naturally relatable. I mean meters and yards are close and it's essentially three feet but still. I'm used to miles and everything else but it would not be that hard to think in metric terms. Already do with wrenches.

[@danielmarshall4587]

Then the price of fuel in the UK.... If you have a european car you can use L/100km.. I need to check if I can swap the display on my "Audi" .

[@ThePirateParrot]

Americans using miles per gallon is silly British people using miles per imperial gallon when we buy fuel in litres is insane XD

[@thomashenderson3901]

But I love it, and use MPG all the time! Daft or otherwise. :-)

[@clagueb3686]

British don't drive miles they drive kilometers.

[@pentachronic]

@@clagueb3686 Why are all the road signs in the UK in Miles ??

[@hasmax786]

@@clagueb3686 we drive Mpg I can confirm

[@15october91]

Hahah, very true, I’m from the UK and beleive we should measure speed in KmpH and use L/100km.

[@royfisher6260]

It’s a lot easier when you have only one car in your fleet like me.

[@commiebobo]

But it is actually nice to know that in terms of fuel consumption, my friend's car getting 33 while I get 36 MPG doesn't really matter much.

[@xocomaox]

@@commiebobo 33 vs 36 would matter, though.

[@cobragoose6313]

@@xocomaox by his math 3.03 gallons per 100mi vs 3.77 so in USD $9.09 vs 11.31 with the current price of gasoline in the USA ($3 per gallon) and in USD $17.54 vs $21.83 with the current price of gasoline in the UK (London @ $5.79)

[@pauulthefair]

It's even more easier when you have no cars in your fleet like me.

[@JohnDoe-zu2cm]

@@commiebobo Yes. It matters a lot.

[@BigDaddyWes]

Aye, one minute in and I've got ten cars. I like where this is going.

[@KaufDirGeld]

So we want the best Feet-Gallon per 62 McDonalds-Inchpounds

[@matheusharuobeker1165]

Don't give any ideas, it may work

[@poiuyqwerty9516]

This nonsense made me LOL

[@chrishernandez2490]

Of course not you savage. Everyone knows metric is superior. You want Meter-Litre per asian newton-meter

[@therwfer]

Dont understand, whats that in barleycorn per quart?

[@ostfahrstreifen8421]

Minecraft kostet auch Geld

[@michaelbarnard8116]

We have it worst here in the UK. Petrol is sold in litres and you calculate it by miles per gallon 😤

[@jimbobjimbob8275]

Yeah, and at least the USA had the sense to stick with one system.

[@randomesteven3935]

@Steve Dave Yeah, US gallons and UK's imperial gallon is different Go figure. Not as bad as my country tho, some people uses cents per km traveled when calculating fuel economy.. I never understood why that matters.

[@Mizan7284]

We in the UK should start using liters per 100 miles 😅

[@rsdwall466]

I thought in UK mileage / efficiency is listed in litres/100kms

[@SlocketSeven]

I thought you guys were still on furlongs per fortnight...

[@complexhuman100]

I've lived and driven in 4 countries so far and I have to adjust my mind to these systems every time I move: km/l, l/km, l/100km, mpg . Someone please take this to ISO and standardize it.

[@rx-heaven8934]

Unfortunately, ISO will never be able to standardize it. In fact no one will. Not in America at least. I'm so glad I get to live in Australia where everything makes sense.

[@sethmathews1860]

@@rx-heaven8934 well, yes but you also live in Australia

[@bobstovall9570]

Do your own standardization. Pick one and, when the need arises, do the requisite conversion just as you would with currency.

[@VideosofRC]

Yeah, take it to ISO who will standardize it after which ANSI will create their own standard :D (check out ISO vs ANSI keyboards for example. If you live in the US, I bet you have non-ISO keyboard)

[@1marcelfilms]

mpg (US) or km/l for me anything else is just wrong

[@urinstein1864]

I've always found it culturally illuminating that an American would ask how far they can go on their tank, whereas a European would ask how big a tank they need to reach their destination.

[@lovermillion]

Logically as a single user with a single card mpg makes more sense. You don't go to a gas station and buy "100 miles". You buy gas by the gallon. To a fleet manager yes g/100mi is easier to determine how efficiently they are spending their money but if you have a fixed amount of money you can buy a fixed amount of gas you have to ask "how far can I go with this"

[@noahluppe]

@@lovermillion but coming from litres/100km and the litres of fuel you can calculate that really quickly. you just divide litres fuel by litres/100km

[@shineko79]

@@noahluppe And with MPG you just multiply the volume you can purchase by that number. This whole video honestly seemed to be clickbait, deliberately using a situation that should not exist with 1/10 of the vehicles getting 1/10 the efficiency. Any fleet would not be using such disparate vehicles the same amount.

[@noahluppe]

@@shineko79 See? With both it's just one simple operation, while litres/100km has more advantages. Thus it's the preferable system.

[@shineko79]

@@noahluppe You yourself admit they've got no advantage over the other in mathematical figuring. Simply put neither is strictly "better" as they both are used best in DIFFERENT scenarios. The actual units used in this do not matter.

[@typhoon-7]

The guy that invented tyre size convention was just trying to keep everyone happy : Width in metric, sidewall height in dimensionless ratio, wheel diameter in imperial and speed rating as an arbitrary letter to a code. Good effort.

[@Lawrench00]

Reminds me of the old saying “A camel is a horse designed by a committee”.

[@kiddster2112]

@@Lawrench00 It is a funny saying, but we can’t malign the camel. An animal that can haul heavy loads vast distances in extreme heat or cold, without food or water. I’d say the camel was designed by a specialist.

[@peglor]

@@kiddster2112 Weirder still is that according to one of the PBS science channels, the first camels evolved in North America and their adaptations were for extreme cold rather than heat and drought...

[@the80386]

@@Lawrench00 the camel is a fascinating bit of kit though. if your target is to downplay committee projects, this is not the example to do it with.

[@MotorClassics]

That's always bugged me too.

[@signdeals4972]

My least favorite conversation: When someone says, “My car is awesome! It only costs $25 to fill up!”

[@NorroTaku]

just thinking about that increases my anger by the second

[@cvsmith122]

I wish my car cost 25 to fill up its like 80 dollars a fill up for 32 gallons.

[@FortunaZKat]

“My car is awesome! It only costs $25 to fill up!” (every 2 blocks). What's that in Euro's?

[@allansmith7305]

@@cvsmith122 What kind of car has a 32 gallon tank?

[@alainsterckx9154]

@@allansmith7305 pickup truck

[@brandonspurlock8059]

I was thinking about the diminishing rate of return on speeding the other week. Going 5 over in a 30 is so much more rewarding than going 80 in a 75. I didn't think about this relating to fuel economy, but it's really cool

[@em_the_bee]

It's partly mathematical (the time you save diminishes) and partly physical (the air resistance goes up with the square of speed, so it skyrockets; also your engine works at unfavourable RPM, unless the gearbox is specifically designed for very high speeds).

[@brandonspurlock8059]

@@em_the_bee I was thinking purely mathematical, but I see where those other factors come into effect with fuel efficiency. I was purely thinking about time and its diminishing ROR. Guess speeding at high speeds is just worse all around

[@octorokpie]

@@brandonspurlock8059 You forget the "fun and satisfying" metric.

[@em_the_bee]

@@brandonspurlock8059 there's also kinetic energy going up with the square of speed as well; harder to control your vehicle and the consequences are grimmer. If there's just one lane for each direction, you need to overtake more and more often etx.

[@altair7001]

@@em_the_bee Etx???

[@daltonky2882]

*cop pulls me over You know how fast you were going? *me, an intellectual Oh about 1.3 hours per 100 miles...

[@ByteFilm]

but speed is distance/time not time/distance so it wouldn't really work

[@RandomGuy53667]

@@ByteFilm 100 miles per 1.3 hours. Satisfied?

[@salacommander2674]

@@ByteFilm Actually it can be both. But maybe it would be better described as "slowness" instead of "speed", since a higher value means you're going slower.

[@Alex-lc1bv]

@@ByteFilm Both can be used, but depending on the speeds being measured you might pick one over the other. For example: for stuff going less than 1 mph, it might make sense to measure it in hours per mile.

[@sesenol252]

@@Alex-lc1bv yup, just like running pace is measured (minutes/km@miles). I know the term Pace is used. you can convert it back to speed (mph@kmph)

[@Dankro91]

"How's the fuel economy of your vehicle?" People in my country: "about 100 bucks a week"

[@mal3xia]

40$ a tank

[@thegamepz]

@@mal3xia Mine is 60-70$ a tank and I drive just a sedan

[@jayevans7737]

@@thegamepz mine is $5000 (think it converts to around $45usd) for a tank. Lasts about 2 weeks depending on how fast you drive.

[@thewhitecarrot]

😂 Or the “it costs me $50 to fill the tank”. 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@labourlawact7826]

My car gets 14 kilometres to a litre of petrol.

[@TurbineResearch]

Jason woke up after a nightmare about converting SAE units to metric and made a rage video "trashing units"

[@EngineeringExplained]

There's gotta be a way to stop those dreams!

[@bitkarek]

@@EngineeringExplained yes, swich to SI units :)

[@MadDicE42]

SAE it when you hadn't enough problems in life, you getting used to this strange numbers and then live you cursed life converting thing one to another, when rest of the people just multiplying by 10.

[@NeoMK]

Well we can't exactly count $ per mile or Km due to Bidens genius moves in the fuel industry. Up almost $1.00 since taking office.

[@markeldik7057]

@@NeoMK that doesn't have much to do with biden more so with saudi arabia and others reducing their oil production a while back and the market is now catching up to the lower supply. We were very lucky to have such low prices for about a year because supply was high and demand low. Right now it seems to be the other way around that's the market for you.

[@Ernescme]

The classical math problem: a customer goes in to a car dealership an buys 10 cars... Then he drives to a grocery store and buys 50kg of carrots and 500 eggs..

[@jhsevs]

more like 0.75 eggs

[@randysanchez1397]

What’s the problem??? Lmfao

[@scott3362]

The answer is either 17, or 3:30 pm. It all depends on whether you use standard or metric units.

[@alkaholic4848]

Sounds more like a mental problem than a maths problem. He'd be better buying one really good/big car than 10 cheaper cars. What's he going to do with them all? Maybe he's planning on transporting all 500 eggs, but who's going to drive them all? Wouldn't he be better with a lorry? And who's going to eat them all? That's a lot of eggs. And they don't last very long before they go bad.

[@scotcoon1186]

I don't see a question

[@dsego84]

Glad to see you mentioned the harmonic mean. It's the same for calculating an average speed, you can't just take the arithmetic mean.

[@solandri69]

The example I use is racecar driver Bubba needs to average 100 MPH or faster over two laps to qualify for tomorrow's race. Unfortunately he doesn't see the flag to start his qualifying run and completes his first lap at 50 MPH. How fast does he have to drive on the second lap to average 100 MPH and qualify? (Answer is he can't. Doing one lap at 50 MPH uses all the time he had available to drive two laps to qualify. So he would have to travel infinitely fast on the second lap to average 100 MPH. Going 150 MPH only results in an average speed of 75 MPH.)

[@atheistontheroad4545]

So what you really want to do is realize that if you're getting 5 mpg, then you've got a Class 8 truck. Just stack all those little commuter cars on a trailer and tow them all with the Class 8. Double your 5 mpg to 10 mpg. Then you're moving the whole fleet that 100 miles for only 10 gallons of fuel.

[@f.f.s.d.o.a.7294]

The real deal

[@luiskp7173]

Or put 20,000 of them in 20 foot containers and stack them over the Ever Given.

[@Davmm96]

That's when you realise that a train is quite effective vs cars.

[@VanillaWahlberg]

@@Davmm96 Absolutely. The fuel they use versus the amount they pull is insanely efficient.

[@louisvaught2495]

Congrats. You've invented public transportation. That is what a bus is.

[@hem1kat]

Reminds me of Steven Wright- "I was going 70 miles an hour and got stopped by a cop who said, "Do you know the speed limit is 55 miles per hour?" "Yes, officer, but I wasn't going to be out that long..."

[@rcpmac]

Very good VERY GOOD!

[@markhackett2302]

Yeah, but how different would that be in kilometers per hour? Still weren't going to be out that long...

[@Loundsify]

So what would you suggest? Distance per second?

[@brunob45]

Meter per second is actually the official SI unit for speed!

[@markhackett2302]

@@brunob45 And Miles per hour is the imperial unit for speed!!!!

[@09ThomasEF]

My main takeaway from this video, which you didn't explicitly say, was that 1 MPG is a much higher percentage of a lower MPG than a higher MPG; an increase by 1 MPG at 5 MPG is a 20% increase, whereas an increase of 1 MPG at 50 MPG is a 2% increase.

[@darkluke4]

an increase by 1 MPG at 5 MPG = a decrease by 3.4 gal / 100 mi (20 gal / mi -> 16.7 gal / mi) an increase of 1 MPG at 50 MPG = a decrease of 0.039 gal / 100 mi (2 gal / mi -> 1.96 gal / mi)

[@monhi64]

Obv he doesn’t literally word it exactly like that but that’s the concept he’s pushing so I’d argue he kinda did explicitly say it.

[@John_Ridley]

He didn't say the exact words you typed there but he did absolutely say that.

[@xipalips]

I think that's already self-evident when doubling the nine 50 mpg cars to 100 mpg works out to be worse than doubling the one 5 mpg car to 10. The doubling is the part where it becomes interesting if you hadnt considered it already, everyone should hopefully know 1 is a higher percentage of 5 than of 50.

[@SirEpifire]

This actually is kind of mind blowing. When you realize your unit of measurement is a ratio... you realize that more efficient parts in the old V8 rebuild is actually worth while.

[@sogerc1]

Ah, the great imperial units! If I walk 100 meters that's 0.1 kilometer (in car-ish unit) but if Jason walks 100 yards that's 0.0568182 miles. Lovely.

[@toranp.8942]

The system was designed around walking and measurements based on the human body. A mile was originally 1,000 paces where a pace was 5 feet, so 5,000 feet. When the English system was standardized, they changed the lengths of feet and yards, which made the mile slightly longer, so now it’s about 1,050 of the original Roman paces.

[@karenripley3678]

@@toranp.8942 Ahh.. that will be Texan paces then ?

[@cristopherhenriquez4850]

Jason Walk 3 yards, 2 duck steps and 3 inches with 2 moths arms

[@CheapBastard1988]

That's not really the point of this video though. Everyone I know (including myself) still calculates fuel consumption in km/l which is affected in the same way (to a different extent) as MPG. And I still think Nautical Miles are a better standard for navigation at sea or in the sky because 1 minute on a meridian is 1 Nautical Mile. When calculating large distances it is more useful than km (though the introduction of GPS made it much less relevant). Though I don't get why we still use 360° as a full circle instead of 100° or 1000° or just 1 for a whole circle and 0.5 for a 180° "angle" but that's a whole different story. For the rest of the calculations the metric system is pretty good. 1kg of water = 1liter = 1 dm^3 is a bit off because the mass unit of water begins with kilo- while the volume begins with deci- but it being 1=1=1 as long as you know which unit to use is still easily doable. The disadvantage being that many people think 1 liter of anything equals to 1kg which of course isn't true as it's dependent upon density. 1 liter of petrol for example is about 0.73kg (if I remember correctly). Still people can all consider themselves lucky they don't have to use imperial tools every day like I do. Actually it's alright once you get used to it. Though it still occasionally happens to me when I want a socket one size smaller than 3/8 and I accidentally grab the 11/32 socket (which I hardly ever need) instead of the 5/16. My work toolbox has all the sizes I could need regularly so they go from 1/4", to 5/16", to 11/32", to 3/8", to 7/16", to 1/2", to 9/16", to 5/8" etc. So nearly every size goes up per 1/16" but that 😖 11/32 is the annoying exception. Honestly I don't understand who would ever think simplifying the fractures would simplify anything. Just going with 4/16", 5/16", 6/16 (and getting rid of any intermediate size) seems much easier to me.

[@sogerc1]

@@CheapBastard1988 Some time ago I bought this Pin Punch Set from aliexpress, they don't know where it will go so they put both systems on it. So I have 1.5mm, 3mm, 4mm, 5mm, 6mm and 8mm punches in it, in imperial it's noted as 1/16", 1/8", 5/32", 3/16", 1/4" and 5/16", I can't imagine who would prefer that notation and why, it's really hard to sort it. It's interesting what you wrote about the nautical mile, I did not know that, but I don't have much to do with the seas. And I agree with the degree too, that 360 makes no sense to me. Radian is more interesting even though I'm not that used to it. Although the τ notation would make more sense to me, if you know Vi Hart's channel she's a big advocate of using τ instead of 2ⲡ.

[@lafcadiothelion]

“I’m an engineer, I know some stuff” will be my go to pick up line from now on. Thanks Jason!

[@harivigneshm9170]

1:05

[@Ed-quadF]

To never get laid.

[@RVBJohn]

@@Ed-quadF lmao fr what an awful pickup line

[@thebucketbus9370]

Good luck with that. I use, "I'm a pilot...." I never need to say more. :)

[@1stMjolnirMarkV]

I’m surprised you didn’t use the term “diminishing returns”

[@darkluke4]

A chart with MPG on the X-axis and gal / 100 mi on the Y-axis

[@jon27d]

This is the most thorough example of a distinction without a difference I've ever seen.

[@lifegoeson1261]

Lmfao 😆 🤣 😂

[@AppleSauceGamingChannel]

@@lifegoeson1261 Like a precisely imprecise comment maybe?

[@rudolphguarnacci197]

Sounds like another 'Murica hatin' foo

[@rbarnes4076]

@jon27d Well.. most people can't even remember their high school algebra.. so having numbers that are intuitive to compare actual costs is a big deal. That is the bigger point here.

[@pannekook2000]

Clearly the real best approach is to consider that we’re trying to measure “volume per unit distance”, and volume divided by distance is nothing but area. Thus the proper metric for fuel economy is square inches.

[@f.f.s.d.o.a.7294]

I like the way you think.

[@charlespletzke8311]

The absolute worst part about the US MPG is that it is different to the UK MPG but they have the same common name for extra confusion

[@8paolo96]

what? how thay're different?

[@GH-oi2jf]

That’s not a problem for the US. We chose the gallon we would use half a century before Britain decided to use a larger gallon throughout the Empire. Now, all the Commonwealth countries are abandoning the Imperial gallon, so if individuals don’t want to use the metric setting in their cars (because they drive miles), they should just use the US setting which computes miles per US gallon. Is the gallon used anywhere else in the UK now? Just don’t change the “pint” in the pubs, though, or you will have an uprising.

[@ErrorCDIV]

@@8paolo96 The imperial gallon is bigger than the US gallon. If I remember correctly it's 4.2l to the US 3.8l.

[@user-zi8jn1go8k]

@@ErrorCDIV weeeeeeeird

[@allansmith7305]

@@ErrorCDIV or 160 ounces for an imperial gallon and 132 for a u.s. gallon.

[@lazergenix]

Amazing how similar this is FPS in games, where improving very low framerates can make a big difference rather than improving on framerates that are already very high. That is why the unit of frametime (seconds per frame) is a much more useful to look at.

[@martinhafner2201]

The funny thing is that gallons per hundred miles is a cube divided by a length, so it is an area. The area of the cross section of the fuel stream that you are kind of squirting behind your as you drive.

[@noahluppe]

And now I'm gonna switch to m² for fuel consumption, thank you

[@drakirelf]

@@noahluppe Actually, a car uses about 0.1 mm² of fuel. Fun stuff like that is another reason american units are bad.

[@mortisCZ]

That's a great image. Congested highway is a river of fuel pouring out of them all.

[@riccardogavanelli1076]

This video is what I needed during a boring 3 hour wait at the garage for a windscreen replacement... thanks Jason!

[@EngineeringExplained]

Happy to help! Fresh windshield is an awesome thing the first time driving it out!

[@shayaandarr]

@@EngineeringExplained until a bird takes a dump....

[@AtlasJotun]

Holy mackerel, that's an incredibly long time to wait! Even with a defrost grid and the ridiculous radar and crap I find hanging off of them, I'm not certain I've ever seen a replacement take even half that long. That shop better have _really_ good pricing!

[@Averna222]

@@AtlasJotun A good portion of the time isn't for replacing the window. The sealant needs to cure for an hour or two before the car can be driven.

[@keisuketakahasi4584]

it took you 3 hours to understand it?

[@TrangleC]

I measure everything in "Freedoms per Bald Eagle".

[@Tejvir7]

Good for you

[@kraze4kicks822]

My favorite unit

[@tafaragadze6432]

😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣

[@YounesLayachi]

Stars per stripes

[@TomCamies]

France: white flags per surrender

[@ternyb1391]

I used to measure my old 70’s mustang with a carburetor in gallons per mile until I parked it.

[@Bane_Diesel]

One mistake I made when I purchased my ford focus rs was to not look at fuel tank size. I made the mistake of assuming that cars would have a reasonable size tank. I spent one week trying to get the absolute best mpg after purchase only to then notice that I had one puny little 12 gallon tank. :(

[@Elkmonger]

The 9 you wrote in scenario 2 is causing me anxiety.

[@TheLuckyLuke314]

Which one there's for of them...😜

[@SupChummer]

The one that looks like an 8.

[@triple-alphatv2946]

You silly. Me too! And I don't think I will ever sleep the same again))

[@uTube486]

Me not too swift... ??? Whata 'bout the 9?

[@biglar155]

Mrs. Codere would have thrown a chalkboard eraser at me if I turned in a quiz with a 9 on it that looked like that my Sr. year of High School - back in the 80's of course. :) Then I would have had to walk up to her desk (picking up the aforementioned thrown eraser so that I could return it neatly to its spot on the chalkboard behind her), erase the sloppy 9 on my quiz and write a good 9, and then quietly return to my desk. All this would have been done under a gaze of such disapproval that everyone in the class - friend or enemy - would not look up from their desks. My parents would not have called the school to complain. Best Teacher I ever had. ;)

[@Artaxo]

Jason: MPG is trash Me: _Happy_ Jason: GPM is better Me: _Not happy_

[@Runmeerkat]

Gold per minute?

[@emceeboogieboots1608]

Yeah, but don't worry! There will be a few metric Vs imperial arguments further down in the comments 😂

[@GTAmaniac1]

Well at the very least gp100m doesn't have asymptotes

[@AirsoftCat]

I like Gallons per Hour, like the gauges in aircraft

[@Unknown-jl7mg]

square feet per freedom eagles.... MURICAAAA

[@insanitysportal6692]

Did nobody notice how the math on the top row was just wrong?

[@joem2745]

So basically, don't have any vehicles in your fleet that gets 5 mpg.

[@mikefoehr235]

Here in Canada we do LITRES/100 kms.

[@H3LLGHA5T]

like in most of the world.

[@labourlawact7826]

I like km/litre

[@abrasive_ideas]

@@sys-administrator Did you watch the end of the video?

[@IceBergGeo]

I think people missed the point of your comment... For those who did, litres vs liters.

[@skiptastic1000]

@@sys-administrator moot point, not worth the text you just typed.

[@TheMilanMovies]

I lost it at “this is a foot, a mile has 5280 of these” WHYYY?!

[@grogblue]

Because that's 8 furlongs, of course. Since I'm one step ahead of you, that's 40 rods. And my car gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it.

[@acchaladka]

Because the King (who defined the foot by having the national foot) went for a walk one day, did 5,280 and then decided everyone would stop for yet another meal, one spring day in 1423. Duh.

[@Suileron]

As is every answer to anything America does...why not?

[@pequaboy1210]

@@Suileron Or.....because we can. 😊

[@Suileron]

@@pequaboy1210 haha same difference I suppose

[@PowerShellWizard]

This is why I studied engineering, to nerd out on videos like this one. Great work! :)

[@The_R-n-I_Guy]

My fuel level gauge doesn't work. So I have to keep track of my miles with my trip counter. I average between 12-15 MPG. It's a 4200 pound sedan with a V8 engine and I have a very heavy foot.

[@Boz1211111]

Its the same. I get around 4.5l/100km and have 40l usable capacity tank. Round it up and you get 800km minimum range

[@jareknowak8712]

Fun fact: Fuel consumption is Sweden- LITERS/SWEDISH MILE. 1 Swedish mile = 10 km (1 Swedish mile = aprox 6.2 US mile)

[@jojo_jo2212]

In China we have common mile which is 0.5km and with with weight we have common weight which is 0.5kg.

[@chatsash36]

You know what, that's still perfectly usable. Converting to the rest of the world is just a factor of ten. Still can't get over why the mile exists -_-

[@gqh007]

Then what’s a Swedish Kilometer?

[@Taroodin]

@@gqh007 1/10 of a mil !

[@jareknowak8712]

@@gqh007 Swedish km = 1 km. Speed is calculated in km :)

[@IceBergGeo]

The averages of miles per gallon are like parallel resistors, and the averages of gallons/100 miles (or liters/100km) is like average in series... I was wondering, at the beginning, if you were going to get into how to ACTUALLY calculate average mpg. I'm glad you did. I shouldn't have expected otherwise.

[@DanielHatchman]

Yeah! Investing the sum of the inverse of the numbers hahaha. Total madness.

[@ewcm1878]

@ice cool story bro.

[@chitlitlah]

I was going to say the same. And he calls himself an engineer...

[@xXUnoriginalNameXx33Meygaera]

Yea I was confused at first with the title of the video. I'd assumed he was just going to make a clickbait video about bashing the imperial system or something. But once I saw the the white board and all the different entries for column #1 "Variable". I knew what he was going to explain, and it's a real important thing to explain when talking about any type of unit. His analogy at the end, talking about "what if you had a car with a billion miles per gallon" is the exact same thought experiment I use to help understand any concept, taking things to the extreme often makes the correct answer easier to intuit without having to do all the math to arrive at the same conclusion.

[@fatherguidosarducci4016]

I need to remember this video for the next time I can’t sleep.

[@DragonAbode]

My man just absolutely LANDED that Intro Hook

[@thejamiestarbuck]

In the UK we drive in MPH, consumption in MPG but we pay/fill up by the litre!

[@TheEpicSponge]

£1.299 per litre sounds cheaper than £5.855 per gallon to us penny pinching Brits!

[@thejamiestarbuck]

@@TheEpicSponge It does but in order to work out the cost of a journey (my OBD always liesss) you have to convert. If we bought fuel in Gallons using your example. At least I'd know at 30mpg, it'd cost me £5.855 for every 30 miles. Job done.

[@gsnedders_legacy]

And consumption is of course in miles per (imperial gallon), not miles per (US gallon). At least miles are identical in both countries! (Since 1959…)

[@jimbobjimbob8275]

@@TheEpicSponge exactly, there would be civil unrest, if they listed the price in gallons! No one would want to pay it.

[@TheEpicSponge]

@@thejamiestarbuck Yep, no contest to your logic there. It'd make calculating your own MPG significantly easier!

[@zylianari8556]

Meanwhile some dudes in my country: How many days does your full tank last?

[@EdBert]

During the shutdown I was getting 3 months per 36 gallon tank.

[@jonathanfields4ever]

@@EdBert 36 gallons?!

[@epanther7719]

@@EdBert you drive 10 miles a day?

[@Vanilla.coke1234]

@@epanther7719 "Shutdown" yknow,,, that time you weren't allowed to go do anything and you had nothing to do anyways

[@kentoutcourt]

I say: up until I leave the gas station. Then it's not full anymore :)

[@darronpattel]

Where I am in Canada we use km for the road but we still use feet and inches along with centimeters and meters, so even though its liters at the pump a lot of us use miles for fuel measurement in our cars.

[@skeetersaurus6249]

Never forget, 'professional engineers' designed the Titanic, as well as the C3 Corvette (that you had to remove the engine, just to change the spark plugs). As a retired mechanical engineer the answer to 'Captain Obvious' here, is that as AN INDIVIDUAL, I don't care about 'CAFE numbers'...being as they are a 'fleet average', and DO NOT APPLY to my car accurately! In fact, Consumer Reports showed years ago, that CAFE standards are for EMISSIONS more than INFORMATION on fuel consumption, and can be off by 15% or more! I, as an individual car buyer, want to know if my car is driven sensibly, what can I expect city and country as a fuel mileage, as well as how much it will cost me to operate it. Young engineers have decided that 'instead of doing things as our consumers require or want', we'll just change the consumer to think like we want them to think.' This isn't engineering, this is social manipulation...and you don't have a degree for that, young man.

[@clayduval1255]

How many times did you have to practice throwing the jug at the camera to achieve the perfect camera shake?

[@pasmuis]

What camera shake?

[@clayduval1255]

@@pasmuis at 4:56 he throws the jug at the camera and the camera shakes

[@pasmuis]

@@clayduval1255 aah i see

[@EngineeringExplained]

The first take (beginning) took two tries. The second take (where it hits the tripod), first try! #blessed

[@CoPoint]

For me, it went the other way around 😁: - First throw: **missing the camera** - my first thought: "How many times did he have to repeat this to _not_ hit the camera 😄?" - Second throw: **BONK** - "Okay, I withdraw that question 😂..."

[@bullie86]

In the Netherlands we tend to use L/100km, though we used to use km/L in the past. People often convert it still.

[@samoht199191]

The units for gas mileage really freak me out. Volume (cubic metres) divided by Distance (metres) which gives square meters, so your gas mileage is a unit of area. That area is equivalent to the cross section of a fuel pipe trailing behind your car.

[@PunnamarajVinayakTejas]

I think I found my favourite comment.

[@TheCampervanBuilder]

During the UK lockdown's, I've been getting 2 months per gallon

[@the_kombinator]

I bought a larger sedan in October of last year. We put 3,000 KM on it. A solid third of that was me just getting computer parts from 3 cities away.

[@the80386]

@@the_kombinator I think OP was talking about whiskey

[@eliubfj]

Per gallon of milk? XD

[@davidweatheritt3108]

@@the80386 no pretty sure he means since he hasn't been driving to work and back he hasn't even used a gallon of fuel over 2 months

[@the_kombinator]

@@davidweatheritt3108 There was a month in there somewhere where I didn't finish a tank, yes.

[@fl4shi238]

I am a software engineer dealing with real-time graphics. Maybe I can use this video to explain to some stubborn colleagues why frames per second is inferrior to milliseconds per frame as performance metric.

[@ravenshrike]

FPS is the better single number average for the consumer. MiS/Fr is better when doing performance segmentation. Avg vs .1% lows vs .01% lows.

[@lanceareadbhar]

Isn't the answer, whatever sounds more impressive to the average person? ;)

[@fl4shi238]

@@lanceareadbhar maybe if you're marketing stuff. But if you try to measure parts of your computer program in order to optimize it, then presenting your measured values in time is better than in frequency.

[@rolandsieker2286]

You can also cancel out one of the meters in l/(100km) (you have to remember that l == dm³, of course), which gives you your fuel economy as an area, a cross section. Sort of how thick a line of fuel you need laid out on the road if you supplied your car that way.

[@DesyncX]

Of course my dude, I'll make sure the next car I buy is able to snort a line of fuel from the road. Thanks for the tip, it will definitely come in handy then!!

[@TheByQQ]

my brother in christ what

[@tesseract_uk]

i love stuff like this, but with MPG it’s almost become detached from the reality of ‘this is how many miles i will get from a gallon’ to ‘oh my car does 50mpg that means it’s good’ i have no idea why certain units of measurement do this for me whilst others like mph dont

[@marcokrueger3399]

It's the "higher is better"-mindset lol

[@and7976]

I use Olympic pool of fuel per football field distance.

[@hardcorn6651]

Are you driving an aircraft carrier?

[@LiviuGelea]

The two units serve different purposes. - The gallons per 100 miles tells you how much fuel you need to get to a destination. - The miles per gallon unit tells you for the amount of money you have, the exact place you will become stranded in the desert.

[@Crosshair84]

You are incorrect. In no situation for the user is the gallons per 100 miles the superior unit. If my destination is 280 miles away and my car gets 30 MPG, all I do is divide 280 by 30 to get the answer. Here, I divide 28 by 3 and the nearest whole number I get, without rounding down, is 10. Low fuel light comes on in my vehicle. I know that when the light comes on I have 3 gallons of fuel remaining. If my current fuel burn is 20 MPG, I can instantly tell that I have at most 60 miles of fuel to get to a gas station. In any real world situation, the calculations are more complex if your unit of fuel economy is gallons per 100 miles.

[@LukasFink1]

@@Crosshair84 If your unit is gallons per 100 miles, you just switch the operations: In the first case you multiply instead of dividing and in the latter case you divide instead of multiplying. So with gallons per 100 miles the first calculations is slightly easier, while with MPG the second is slightly easier. I would argue though, that the second calculation is getting less common as most cars nowadays can show the remaining range directly. Additionally G/100mi has the benefits mentioned in the video. While I agree that the need to average the values for multiple cars is quite uncommon for individuals, it’s definitely an advantage to be able to intuitively compare these values when buying a car and argue e. g. this car needs 20 % less G/100mi so it’ll cost me 20 % less on fuel per year.

[@BlairdBlaird]

Right, MPG tells you easily how far you can get on a known quantity of fuel (e.g. a fuel tank). So it's useful for the odd very long trip as it helps plan your fuel stops along the way: multiply MPG by size of the fuel tank, take a compass, you will need to find a fuel stop within the circle. The flip side is it's a pain to compare relative efficiency, and is less convenient to know how much fuel you need for a given distance e.g. you need to drive from A to B, how much fuel will you need. GPM is, obviously, the reverse: it's a linear unit so comparing relative efficiency is utterly obvious, and it's easy to know how much fuel you will need for a known distance (a multiplication, and a trivial division for the likely g/100m), however it's harder to know how much you can travel on a given amount of fuel. In that sense MPG does make some sense in the US, as the saying goes americans think 100 years is a long time and europeans think 100 miles is a long distance, most european countries you can cross on a tank or two (Aberdeen to Southampton is 600 miles) so it's not much of a concern; crossing the US however is a very different proposition, and there are wide areas of nothing in the middle (same with Australia I guess). Still, MPG mostly seems like something that's really useful when you're actively planning and have a lot of time anyway, and it's not *too hard* to get that information from GPM, whereas the non-linear relation between MPG and efficiency makes *reasoning* abour relative efficiencies in MPG much less intuitive.

[@Crosshair84]

@@JS-oh2dp "without too much extra effort." That's the problem. You should use a unit that requires NO "extra effort". MPG does that for the VAST majority of the people. Calculating with it involves ONLY using multiplication, which is far easier than division for most people. Real world example: "My car has been averaging 24 MPG of real world fuel economy between fillups and I have a quarter tank left. A quarter tank is about ~3.5 gallons of usable fuel in this car. The road sign says the next major town is 80 miles away with some smaller ones between. Will I make it to the next major town?" The person takes the 3.5 down to 3 and considers that .5 gallons as either reserve or fuel gauge error margin. 3 gallons of fuel left. 3 x 24 means 73. Meaning you'd likely just barely make it by including the .5 gallon in the calculations, but you'd be cutting it close and might not. You might as well refuel at one of the smaller towns. MPG is used because that is the unit that has the information in the format that is most relevant for people. What works best for 300,000,000 people takes precedence over what works best for 200,000 engineers.

[@dmas7749]

@@Crosshair84 i prefer the metric system generally but this is why i disagree with the video

[@quailstudios]

For some reason I like the foot, the mile, the acre, the gallon. There is some kind of romance in that. It's like measuring a horse with hands. What's wrong with that? I know, it varies a little depending on who's measuring, OK, whatever.

[@ssaannddrro]

Even though we use metric in Australia, I will always use the Imperial 6 inches for certain things!

[@rbarnes4076]

First.. I can totally understand.. Second.. and not a negative comment on you.. more just a comment on what we get used to.. I grew up in the US which uses the english system for basically everything.. but in high school I went to a tech school with a focus in Chemical Tech, and in college took chemistry for two years as part of undergrad work in biology. So for me, metric just became easier to think in and calculate in. Many things that required a calculator in english system I could do in my head in metric (not all, obviously). Further, since I deal with a lot of Europeans in my work, metric is something I'm used to thinking in. I can obviously still think in english.. but part of me has always hoped for a conversion to metric in the US (even though now I think it is just a pipe dream).

[@Johnny_OSG]

Ah yes, the daily imperial bashing video, my body is ready

[@SFledz]

It's terrible though. Let it go already.

[@mtunayucer]

YESS i love these videos *Laughs in metric*

[@M69392]

While everyone else commutes a fixed distance, Americans drive until their fixed tank capacity runs out. The use of imperial units hides this much bigger difference.

[@thecompanioncube4211]

Countries using KM/L have the same issue as well. The issue is with order and not the actual unit

[@Xennox2]

I like imperial. It is just total chaos:) Imp: Yes that is one feet three pounds and a small hedgehog Metric: 1 Meter Imp: Three nods one foot and 11/2 inch Metric: 2 meter

[@ChaosPootato]

A sneak peek into Jason's favorite activities besides writing stuff in many colors on whiteboards and driving cars : throwing one gallon jugs at cameras

[@radbaron]

3.96L or 4.45L? US vs UK/CAN gallon.

[@misanthropiccurmudgeon4395]

@@radbaron 😳🤯😵

[@tacomas9602]

It's like rays truck cab, but instead of throwing piss jugs out the window, we throw empty milk cartons at the audience of science class.

[@yourjoshnme]

🤯🤯 great video as always! The math is always fascinating.

[@krissolson7043]

I always enjoy your videos. Thanks.

[@tkpit5100]

Just as a reminder: With km/l you run into the same kind of problem. Therefore, as explained in the video, l/100km is used.

[@dennisparslow7997]

This kind of feels like a better title is "why no one understands what "average" means"

[@zlunazelena4080]

No he said it correctly

[@joshblumer2624]

Exactly. It's symantecs.

[@terranceblount5959]

Every time I watch one of your videos… I go on a hardcore geek trip. 🤓 Keep up the great work and love the explanations. (And the ole whiteboards)

[@mikey4016]

What this really shows is the stupidity of the C.A.F.E. standards. If you have a super low "economy" vehicle in your fleet of much higher "economy" vehicles, then for one thing it is probably not driven nearly as much as the other vehicles and for another thing it is likely far more efficient if you actually consider true efficiency, i.e. it can haul far more than the supposedly higher economy vehicles, or in other words it does far more work per gallon than the little four wheeled single person movers.

[@zwerko]

Thousand times thank you for making the case so succinctly, I've tried to explain how distance per volume is super-misleading many a times, I'll now finally have a video to direct people who 'just want to know how far I can travel for my money'...

[@erenaslan7144]

Watched this and realised 2 things. 1. I am very tired after a day of work 2. I might have the IQ of a farm animal...

[@pmrsfr]

That makes 2 of us. I can only think in Lt/100Km. It just makes sense to me.

[@ax4178]

3. Wrong pay grade

[@PhilbyFavourites]

Mooooooo!

[@jaqjaq101]

For fleet logistics, there is a missing part of this as well This is assuming that all the vehicles are going to same miles in a given time period, If the 9 cars are actual fleet cars doing 500 to 1000 miles per week and the one doing 5 mpg is only an executive doing 100 kiles a week then is would actually be better to do option 1, improve the fleet

[@mattpopovich]

Thanks for mentioning the Rolls Royce at 8:00. I was going to buy one but due to your suggestion, I'll be going with the Honda.

[@maxreemtsma4955]

when I hear the "hello everyone, and welcome" I know I'm about to do some learning

[@tqracing]

No no, you don't "do some learning" - you git learnt.

[@fortitudevalance8424]

Bare in mind the US gallon (3.78l) is less than the UK Imperial gallon (4.54l). US Quart is around 946ml and UKQ is 1,136ml UK and half quart or US pint 473ml and British pint 568ml which are both half quarts.

[@jimbobjimbob8275]

So if you want your US vehicle to get more MPG, just move to the UK with it lol!

[@fortitudevalance8424]

@@jimbobjimbob8275 I’m sure some manufacturers do this this in their advertising.

[@gen1c8rs88]

@@jimbobjimbob8275 Still would get less mpg as the USA units are smaller. Just like a metric ton is 2205 lbs vs 2000 lbs for the imperial ton.

[@chomp54321]

That reminds me that the standards for weight in the US is actually metric, i.e. Kilogram. All scales are actually calibrated to that. When we switched over to L/100km in Canada, it was weird. But once I got my head around it, it was actually easy to understand.

[@NS-my7gy]

Funny, isn't it. I was used to L/100km from Europe when I came to Thailand where they are used to km/L. It was very strange, but my car dashboard can dot both ways. So I can chose, and guess what I'm using... km/L. Ha,ha,ha. After having seen this video, maybe I should switch back to the good old European way.

[@relatively_random4903]

The video hasn't really convinced me that volume over distance is somehow the superior measure (it gives exactly the same information), but it finally made the harmonic mean click for me. Thanks!

[@Cyberguy42]

Agreed, I don't see how the issues he pointed out would cause trouble for typical person in the real world. I mean, who is looking at the average mpg of their vehicles? What would even be the use of that information (for a typical person)?

[@octorokpie]

@@Cyberguy42 Best I can guess is hypothetically if you were considering paying more for increased fuel efficiency when buying a car. The jump from 10-20 is worth a lot more than the jump from 40-50 and you shouldn't pay the same markup for both. But realistically that's not how cars are bought or sold. Other factors are going to land all your options in a similar range of price and fuel economy anyway.

[@AppleSauceGamingChannel]

@@Cyberguy42 Because the average American has trouble making sense of numbers, and somehow an increase of 40 to 50 mpg seems more impressive than 4 to 3 l/km. Also see why third pounder burgers didn't make it in the US.....

[@Kangaroo_Caught]

In Australia we moved from mpg to l/100km when we went metric. But in Mexico, reports show km/l.

[@3800S1]

I hate km/L, hard to know exactly how much fuel is left and range, where knowing L/100Km and the trip meter you can quickly calc the remaining fuel left in L in your head and not have to rely on the inaccurate fuel gauge.

[@warpedfusion]

@@3800S1 where do you think your vehicle is getting that range number from? 😂

[@3800S1]

@@warpedfusion what range numbers?

[@3800S1]

@@viniciusbraga9881 I disagree. Besides instantaneous fuel usage is a useless metric, average is all that matters.

[@3800S1]

@@viniciusbraga9881 On my daily car it's meaninglessly. I can drive super careful and like a granny I get 8.5L/100 over a full tank, drive like a maniac, flat out every opportunity I get, it results about 9-9.5/100. It's no appreciable difference really. What makes more of a difference is the ambient temp, in summer I average low 8s and in winter it averages high 9s but driving style makes far less of the difference. That's my daily driver. My weekend car, same model/engine but the engine is hotted up. If I cane it everywhere its about 16L/100 but if I only thrash it a little bit I get about 10L/100. For that engine combo it does make a difference but being a car I only drive a few times a year it doesn't matter how much it uses.

[@mattwodziak1750]

I achieved my goal of learning something new today. Back to bed for me.

[@sagacious03]

Interesting video! Thanks for uploading!

[@Drunken_Hamster]

What you stated about quickly calculating the range is the exact reason why MPG is a better metric for consumers. Yes, for fleets with varying distances traveled, g/100mi is more useful, and the same goes for equivalent comparisons. But for commuters, road trippers, and weekend warriors, the distances between our DESTINATIONS never change.

[@TCPUDPATM]

This is why the Escalade Hybrid never took off. A “mpg” going from 9 to 10 is worth a lot. That same “mpg” going from 49 to 50 is practically meaningless.

[@BigHeadClan]

I'm pretty sure Jason just wanted to rant about how silly the system is... And I'm okay with that. :)

[@solandri69]

Another way to think of it is that MPG is the unit you want to use if you have 1 gallon of fuel and want to know how far you can travel. GPM is what you want to use if you have to travel 1 mile, and wish to know how much fuel you'll use. If you think about it, 99.99% of your driving is based on traveling a fixed distance (e.g. 47 miles to grandma's house). So GPM is actually the much more useful unit to use. MPG is only of interest to race car drivers trying to figure out how many laps they can travel before they need to refuel. I've been trying to explain this to people for over a decade. Thanks for making a video on it. You should also point out that it's not due to the percentages being different either. Some people mistakenly think that even though a 1 MPG improvement isn't the same from 5 or 50 MPG, a x% MPG improvement will result in the same fuel savings. 5->6 MPG still saves 10x more fuel than 50->60 MPG.

[@bahamatodd]

"My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it"

[@victordogaru]

"Make way, he's an engineer, he knows stuff" 🤣🤣

[@EdBert]

I work with engineers...50% chance either his shoes are untied or his zipper is down.

[@linearlink]

@@EdBert He didn’t know how to use a caliper when trying to measure his Tesla’s panel gaps. AN ENGINEER COULDN’T PROPERLY USE A CALIPER...

[@mirkogruden8362]

He does. He absolutely does. Engineers knows their stuff. If you think this isn't the case.. well.. then you are WRONG.

[@BeatstormX]

@@EdBert You work FOR the engineers

[@wompa70]

Any excuse to throw a milk jug! :)

[@EngineeringExplained]

Mostly why I make videos!

[@hipster_lion]

is no one going to bring up 0:46-0:48? that jump cut w/ the audio of the jug hitting the floor was pretty funny :D

[@DanFromGym]

L/100km is super handy for road trips because in Canada, most highways are 100km/h or 110km/h. So you don't need the distance to estimate fuel cost, you can just use "hours of driving" and it's pretty close.

[@gabrielmartinez3171]

Here in the states road most roads go from 55mph to 85 mph so if you calculate your miles driven to gallons used "mpg" you can very quickly calculate your overall mileage or let's say you go 85 mph one way then come back doing 70 mph you can calculate the difference in speed effecting your mpg without any other math then dividing miles driven by fuel used.

[@DanFromGym]

@@gabrielmartinez3171 I was talking about estimating gas usage before a trip, not how to calculate mileage after a trip.

[@gabrielmartinez3171]

Gotcha (as in I understand)

[@benjaminboyer39]

My mind was definitely blown by the scenario 3 STILL being the best but it finally made sense. Neat video!

[@abood91as]

Thank you for saying it, US has lots of weird units, I always use L/100KM, and when I talk to to people from US and some fr Canada they use weird terms like corn syrup on cheeseburger per bald eagle or mpg

[@markhackett2302]

Nope, the US has units. Every country has units. NOBODY measures the area of the USA in square inches, so converting square inches into acres is a nonsensical demand.

[@tusk6400]

Per bald eagle ?

[@barbikinkin]

It’s maple syrup and do you have a hate on for bald eagles?

[@KMopar07]

as a french canadian i know my L/100km thank you. and i also have 2 gallon of maple syrop in the kitchen. 😂 we use both system because we sell alot to america so yeah we use metric on the road. but we mesure with the english system. its really rare to find a shop that mesure in Metric.

[@markhackett2302]

@@KMopar07 It should be quite abhorrent to you to see people calling for the US to drop their imperial units, because it would be like telling you that you should change your signs to English only, and that everyone should abandon French, or any other language, to use the widespread interoperability language: English.

[@shadow105720]

Me chip tuning my truck to get +1 mpg: "haha silly prius drivers I'm the one saving us all"

[@5tr41ghtGuy]

No, the Prius drivers are each using far less fuel than yourself. Instead of driving a truck, why not drive a sedan or coupe that will go 3x as far on a gallon of fuel?

[@Mr_Glenn]

@@5tr41ghtGuy the joke flew right over your head. You should feel embarrassed.

[@5tr41ghtGuy]

@@Mr_Glenn I put out some low-self-esteem-loser bait, and you fell for it. You should feel embarrassed :O

[@ardenthebibliophile]

Sure, and when you are wanting to do an energy analysis this makes sense. But if I want to go and figure out which car gets me the farthest on a single fueling (or charging) the other is easier. It's just about use case. It's not that one is intrinsically better or worse you just have to use the one appropriate for the scenario.

[@taylormielke]

Thank you!!

[@em_the_bee]

Yeah, but... If you do it before you decide to buy, it's just dividing and multiplying compared to just multiplying for MPGs. Literally one arithmetic operation more. And if you already own the car, modern cars usually have estimated distance on the dashboard

[@SuperStevieye]

But... how so? No matter if MPG or G/100M, both easily allow you to figure out the range on one tank

[@ardenthebibliophile]

@@em_the_bee yes in any of the analyses it's just simple arithmetic. One is simpler as you don't have to invert but that doesn't make it hard.

[@ardenthebibliophile]

@@SuperStevieye MPG also easily allows you to figure out the energy usage too.. if you actually do the math correctly. Your point is circular.

[@ricebox1178]

I’m still surprised that kwh/mile is a thing. They combined a metric unit with an imperial unit to create that abomination, and I can’t classify it as either one.

[@Kepe]

I'm pretty sure Americans measure electricity consumption in kWh, so it is quite logical.

[@8paolo96]

that's why space rockets crash

[@GH-oi2jf]

The only problem is your need to classify things. If someone finds mixed units useful, I have no objection.

[@EngineeringExplained]

Well, we do use watts (lightbulbs, microwave, etc) and kWh (electricity bills) in the US, so it kinda makes sense for us. Thankfully there isn't much use of BTUs outside of HVAC discussions.

[@kenbrown2808]

watthours aren't metric.

[@voric2893]

I'm Canadian, we use L/100Km...which can be converted to m^3/m ... which is an area.

[@nicholaslau3194]

In jet aircraft, the fuel economy is measured in TSFC, which has dimensions of s^-1

[@plonkster]

In South Africa using km/liter is also common, and of course that has the same problems. But I always think of it this way: One is a unit of consumption (liter per 100km) while the other is a unit of efficiency (km per liter). I find that l/100km is a poor unit for the dash display in the car. It shows decimal values between 7 and 8 on most days, which are mostly mostly useless to my brain, which cares about driving efficiently :-)

[@halfrhovsquared]

I love the way the sound of the empty bottle clattering to the floor off-camera continues AFTER the jump-cut.

[@UninstallingWindows]

"... where the numbers make sense" * Americans have left the chat *

[@edrumsense]

The thumbs of my hands measures more or les 1 inch in diameter... or you are talking about my feets?

[@UninstallingWindows]

@@edrumsense I’m obviously talking about the circumference of your left foot

[@poorlittlebiker6476]

Y’all sitting here joking, I’m deadass leaving this video because this man lost me the second he said a number 😂

[@seismica]

There is more than one gallon unit of measurement in common usage as well, Imperial & US. So MPG is reported differently in different parts of the world (Namely the UK as we like to mix imperial and metric for some inexplicable reason). Sometimes when comparing specifications from cars from multiple manufacturer's, it doesn't clarify which one is used so you could be comparing two completely different units.

[@skiptastic1000]

Let’s not even get into weighing in ‘ stone ‘ 🥴🥴

[@GH-oi2jf]

The mixed unit thing is explicable. I have explained it elsewhere in this forum.

[@seismica]

@@GH-oi2jf On this forum as in youtube comments? The reason is we stopped part way through our 'metricisation'. It takes funding and political will to mandate the change and we just stopped dead. Older generations are just so familiar with their old units that they will vehemently oppose any further changes, so political parties stay well clear of the issue. Road speed signs for example, it is a long and costly process to change all of these from mph to kph. Driver re-education wilol be required. Cost will easily be in the billions. In the long run it will be worth it, to align with global standardisation of units. Many other large countries have already done it. Kilometres are the superior unit to miles.

[@olasek7972]

@@seismica kilometers superior? Depends. Nautical miles are superior to kilometer in aviation and marine navigation therefore they are standard unit of length in those areas. Also aviation uses feet for altitude, again superior to meters but this would take a bit longer to explain.

[@GodmanchesterGoblin]

@@skiptastic1000 No problem. Or "hundredweight" - 1 cwt = 8 stone or 112 pounds. I remember that many years back someone calculated the speed of light in furlongs per fortnight. It made perfect sense. :)

[@davem45]

Awesome! thanks for the video. do you have anything similar regarding EV's and their "miles per gallon" equvilant?

[@jiminverness]

I loathe litres per 100 km or gallons per 100 miles. Bottom line: it doesn't tell me at a glance how far I can drive on a gallon. I have to mentally recalculate. Sure, it's useful for corporate fleet accountants, but for you and me driving my car, I want to know how much range I can expect to have in my car, or the car I'm looking to purchase. I *don't care* how many gallons it takes to travel 100 miles. If I look on the net for the distance to my destination I can trivially multiply that distance by my mpg (allowing margin for error) to figure out if and when I need to refuel, or if I need to stow a jerrycan in the trunk.