Question

11 gallons Blue Car 2 of gas 35.4 miles A gallons 27 miles Silver Car 5 14. You are running a fuel economy study. You want to find out which car can travel a greater distance on 1'gallon of gas. a. What is the gas mileage, in miles per gallon, for the blue car? b. What is the gas mileage, in miles per gallon, for the silver car? c. Which car could travel the greater distance on 1 gallon of gas?

Answer 1

a) 23.67 miles per gallon

b) 34 miles per gallon

c) The silver car could travel a greater distance.

Explanation:

a)

Conversion of the mixed numbers to fractions:

`1(1)/(2)=(1\ast2+1)/(2)=(2+1)/(2)=(3)/(2)`
`35(1)/(2)=(35\ast2+1)/(2)=(70+1)/(2)=(71)/(2)`

Gas mileage:

3/2 gallons - 71/2 miles

1 gallons - x miles

Simplifying the top line by 2.

3 gallons - 71 miles

1 gallon - x miles

3x = 71

x = 71/3

x = 23.67 miles per gallon

b)

Conversion of the mixed number to fraction:

`27(1)/(5)=(27\ast5+1)/(5)=(135+1)/(5)=(136)/(5)`

Mileage:

4/5 gallons - 136/5 miles

1 gallon - x miles

Simplifying the top line by 5

4 gallons - 136 miles

1 gallon - x miles

4x = 136

x = 136/4

x = 34 miles per gallon

c)

Blue car: 23.67 miles per gallon

Silver car: 34 miles per gallon

Silver car could travel a greater distance.