Final answer:
To calculate the cost of gas for a trip, a program must convert input distances and fuel measurements to consistent units, calculate the vehicle's fuel economy in miles per gallon, and then multiply the total number of gallons by the cost per gallon.
Step-by-step explanation:
Calculating the cost of gas for a trip relies on several key inputs and applying a basic formula. When designing a computer program to perform these calculations, you will need to prompt the user for information and then process it to obtain the desired results.
In this example, a Toyota Prius Hybrid uses 59.7 liters of gasoline to travel 1300 km from San Francisco to Seattle. To convert liters into gallons, we use the conversion factor that 1 gallon is approximately 3.78541 liters. For the fuel economy, we must first convert kilometers to miles, knowing 1 kilometer is equal to 0.621371 miles.
After obtaining the car's mileage in miles per gallon, we can calculate the cost of the trip. This is done by multiplying the total number of gallons used by the cost per gallon. Given the cost of gasoline is $3.90 per gallon, this gives us the total fuel cost for the trip using the user's input within the program.