Question

Peggy filled her van's gas tank and noted that the odometer read 24,563.3. After the next fill-up, it read 24,937.8. It took 17.5 gal to fill the tank. How many miles per gallon did the van get?

Answer 1

21.4 miles per gallon

Step-by-step explanation

First, we need to know how many miles the van did between tank fill-ups, which is the difference between the odometer's readings:

`24,937.8-24,563.3=374.5`

So Peggy travelled 374.5 miles between the first and the second fill-up. And it is said that she did this with 17.5 gallons of fuel. To find the miles per gallon the van got, we have to divide the number of miles by the volume in gallons of the tank:

`(374.5)/(17.5)=21.4\text{ miles/gallon}`