MPG Question During Filmed Road Trip

looks good to me, thanks jimmy!

 

thanks for your videos, very informative!

 

I think it adds up OK.

32.4miles at 43.4MPG = .7465 gallon
30.7miles at 192.4MPG = .1596 gallons

Total Gallons = .9061
Total Miles = 63.1

63.1/.9061 = 69.7MPG - which is pretty close to your display's 70.1 (though your display on TRIP B showed 69.5miles total - did you trip them both at the same time initially?).

 

I remember being told when working with statistics (which I didn't enjoy) was that you cannot average an average, as it won't give the desired answer, unless the variable is the figure you want to compare. We were told that we generally needed to go back to raw data from before it had been averaged.

I'm not a mathematician and have just fried my brain thinking about it - but my guess is that with trying to average MPGs, the variable is the Miles, whereas the Gallons is always ONE (ie "x" Miles to 1 gallon) - so the problem with thinking MPG is that the variable (MILES) isn't what you're interested in, but the NUMBER OF GALLONS YOU $PENT YOUR HARD EARNED DOLLAR$ ON. And what happens is that the BIGGER number means that you USED LESS - not entirely logical!!

IN CONTRAST, in metric countries where we measure in litres per 100km, the variable is the number of litres - which is the operative variable we want to $$PAY FOR$$, and the FIXED is the distance - always 100km. So, the less fuel you use, the smaller the figure. And, as far as I can ascertain, the averages in l/100km actually can be averaged. I reworked your figures roughly in l/100km and you used 5.42l/100km going up, 1.22l/100km coming down, which, when averaged = 3.32l/100 - which converts to approx 71MPG.

 

Thanks for the good video! I leave the mpg numbers for the car to calculate!