...I have way too much free time. Or global warming is a bunch of crap (I had a sweatshirt on today). Or my math is just way off.
I saw an ad online today for a synthetic motor oil and how much money I could save if I used it. They had a little savings calculator and you had to input some of your vehicles information for it to calculate your savings. One of the entries was for my vehicles (2005 Grand Caravan) miles per gallon rating. The calculator took me to this government fuel economy web site to find out what the mpg's were. Here's where my question lies. This government web site says my van produces a carbon footprint of 10.2 tons per year of CO2. I repeat! 10.2 tons.
Now lets do some cipherin'. Gas weighs between 5.93 and 6.42 pounds per gallon depending on temperature and blend of gas. Let's assume a round figure of 6.25 pounds per gallon, just for ease of cipherin'. I have a 20 gallon tank on my van. That comes out to 125 pounds per tank. Now lets figure that I fill up 35 times a year. I giving them 35, but I would guess it's probably less.
Are you still with me now Jethro? I can't do this all day.
With me filling up 35 times a year at 125 pounds per fill up, that comes out to 4,375 pounds of gas I use a year. Now divide 4,375 pounds by 2,000 (a ton) and you get 2.19 tons of gas that I put in my vehicle. I repeat. I use 2.19 tons of gas per year.
Now how does the government come up with their figure, 10.2 tons of CO2 produced by my van per year? It's impossible, it's illogical, it just does not compute!
It's like me saying that if I burn 25 pounds of wood in our fireplace I'll end up with 75 pounds of ash, soot and smoke. That don't make no sense!!!!!
I asked my daughter, she's almost 13 so I thought she'd know, how they came up with 10.2 tons per year. All she could think of was, "it's magical". She's probably right.
4 comments:
I bet my Dodge truck produces 100 tons of carbon per year. No, wait a second, 100 tons is how much gas it burns between here and Memphis, TN. That's it.
Seriously, though. Why does OUR government have to be in charge of the fuel economy page? Do they really expect someone with half a brain to believe anything read on a ".gov" page? I would love to see Congress' parking lot when they are in session. You can bet your butt there are plenty of big ol' sedans and limos, not these little clown-sized half electric death-traps.
I hate our government. And I think global warming is BS.
And now I'm upset on Sunday morning. Thanks, pal.
No problem. I'm just happy I could help out on this fine Sunday morning.
I like your argument, but here is some info from some sort of far-left page that I am embarrassed to admit reading:
One gallon of gas weighs about 6.25 pounds. The weight fluctuates with temperature and octane, but this figure is good enough for government work.
Let’s pretend that gas is entirely made up of octane (more properly referred to as 2,2,4-trimethylpentane). It’s not, but that also doesn’t really matter for our purposes. Octane contains 8 carbon atoms (hence the oct- prefix, like Dr. Octopus) and 18 hydrogen atoms. Carbon has a molecular weight of 12 and hydrogen has a molecular weight of 1, so octane has a total molecular weight of 114 (8 x 12 + 18 x 1).
Oxygen has a molecular weight of 16, so CO2 has a total molecular weight of 44 (12 + 16 + 16). Every molecule of octane makes eight molecules of CO2, with a total molecular weight of 352 (44 x 8).
6.25 pounds x (352 / 114) = 19.3 pounds
Et voila! All it takes to convert 6 pounds of gas into 20 pounds of carbon dioxide is some highly confusing algebra!
Again, it's not my side, but any educated argument must include an antagonistic approach.
http://www.terrapass.com/blog/posts/how-to-turn-8-p
Look what I could be doing if only I had taken the firefighter's test!
Post a Comment