Week Two:
Outside Lab Measurement Project:
In Chemistry
we collect data in the laboratory while performing an experiment. Our second
lab concerns measurement and data collection. As an additional experiment which
can be performed by you collecting data over the next 3 to 4 months, we can
find out what our energy cost are for driving a car. So here is the project
which we will start ASAP and finish the last week of the term:
Energy Project: My Gasoline Demand
During
the first weeks of class you need to fill your gasoline tank in your car.
During the course you will keep a record of all purchases of gasoline noting
dates, price, amount, cost and odometer reading. Get receipts or keep a diary
in your vehicle. Then transfer each purchase to a data page or in a spreadsheet.
During the last weeks, you fill your tank again
and record the data. You will determine:
Total
Miles Driven: Subtract you initial
odometer reading from the your final Odometer Reading
Total
gallon Used: Sum all your Gallons
Purchased, except do not include the gallons recorded in your initial fill-up
(Why?)
Total
Cost: Sum all your dollars spent
during the project, except the initial fill-up. (Why?)
MPG = Total Miles Driven divided by Total Gallons
Used
Average
Cost Per Mile = Total Dollars Spent divided by Total Mile Driven
Average
daily Miles = Total Miles Driven
divided by Total Days of the Project
Average
Daily Gallons Used = Total Gallon Used
divided by Total Days of the Project
(You may not be able to answer this, but
statistics say that the average U.S. driver averages 29 miles per day and this
can be skewed if you took a long trip during the project to see if you are
average)
Annual
Mileage = your daily average miles
driven calculated above multiplied by 365 days
Annual
Gasoline Demand: Your average Gallons Used
multiplied by 365 days
Annual
Cost @ $2.00/gallon = Yearly Gasoline Demand(gallons) multiplied by $2.00/gallon
Annual
Cost @ $3.00/gallon = Yearly Gasoline Demand(gallons) multiplied by $3.00/gallon
Annual
Cost @ $3.50/gallon = Yearly Gasoline Demand(gallons) multiplied by $3.50/gallon
Annual
Cost @ $4.00/gallon = Yearly Gasoline Demand(gallons) multiplied by $4.00/gallon
Annual
Cost @ $4.50/gallon = Yearly Gasoline Demand(gallons) multiplied by $4.50/gallon
Annual
Cost @ $5.00/gallon = Yearly Gasoline Demand(gallons) multiplied by $5.00/gallon
Total
Annual CO2 Released = Total Annual Gallons Used multiplied by 19
pounds/gallon
i. The instructor may add additional data for
you to determine to complete this project.
These
calculations should be done in a spreadsheet or typed in table format, but the
spreadsheet may either be hand drawn on your data page or done on the computer.
You may also keep your data in your lab notebook.
You
need to only fill the tank twice, at the beginning and at the end of the
project. You will not use the first fill-up in your calculations, except
odometer reading. Why?
If you
do not drive or own a vehicle and can not get cooperation from your family, the
instructor will assigned an alternate energy demand project or you may earn 30-60
total points using the data of your instructor’s car.
Discussion:
My concept of
driving with the increase cost of gasoline, is to have
a car which gets at least 20 miles per gallon; but spend approximately only 5 to
10 cents a mile cost of the vehicle. At $4 per gallon that is 20 cents per mile
to drive plus 10 cents purchase cost per mile…totally 30 cents or less per
mile.
In 1985 I
purchased my last brand new car. It was a GM Tech 4 engine which got 27-37 mpg.
Before that it was1963 when I got my first 20 mpg car a VW Karman Ghia. My very
first car was a 55 ford coupe in 1958 which got only 8 mpg. (Gasoline then was
14 cents a gallon. I got upset in 1962 when gas jumped to 17-18 cents a gallon
and so I went for the 20 mpg. Have a laugh, but think about it a 4 cent jump
was almost a 30% increase. Today that equates to $3 to $3.90. Remember minimum
wage in 1962 was 40 cents an hour, which was $16 per week for a worker trying
to just get by.
All the cars in between have been used from
excellent to tired old beat-up cars, sometime I call them Throw away cars
(Spend $1000 drive it 10,000 miles then throw it away: cost 10 cents per mile).
I am very
concerned about our environment. No matter how many mpg you get, every gallon
of gasoline you burn produces almost 19 pounds of Carbon Dioxide into our
atmosphere. If we drive electric, then the equivalent for a gallon of gasoline
in electricity purchased from a fossil fuel company (Like JEA) created between
4 to 5 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere which saves the environment
13-14 pounds of CO2 per equivalent gallon used.
The chemical
reaction for combusting gasoline is:
2 C8H18 (l) + 25 O2
(g) à 16
CO2 (g) + 18 H2O (g)
By Module 5
we will prove the stoichiometry of this reaction and prove the 18.7 pounds per
gallon burned.
Since 2009 I
have been preaching we need to drive all electric. You need to research the
only real plan to save America is the T-Boon Pickens Plan.
However, due
to our Florida Government in 2010, the electric initiative has been put on the
back burner. In January 2011 I drove the Niasen LEAF. Loved
the car. Immediately my wife wanted to write a check for $25K and buy it
for me. WOW!
A month later I drove the Chevy VOLT…more
realistic than the LEAF for Florida, but it wasn’t Toyota and my wife hates
American. (I have always driven American cars, except my VW, my wife has driven
Toyota for the last 30 years). OK, I decided to go hybrid, make my wife happy,
but not save the environment as much. Toyota granted me the option to purchase
the very first plug in Prius in the third quarter of 2012, but my
frustration with local dealerships I had
to compromise. My wife bought the 2012 Version III Prius. OK 48-51 mpg versus
69-75 mpg. The plug-in Prius is best option on the road and it is now appearing
on the roads since fourth quarter 2012. You can run 14 miles at under 62 mile
per hour on pure electric and plug into 120 volt standard outlet, while
generation III Prius 3-4 miles at speeds under 38 mpg
does not have the plug in option.
Raw
data Collected By your Instructor Summer 2012!
The following
is a sample of three months of raw data, with a few calculations, but no where
near the calculations you need to do to complete this project:
2012
Toyota Prius
Purchased
car: May 1, 2012 Odometer 00004
full tank
1st fill-up: Hess-Orange Park 5/10/12
9.2 gallons $3.629
$33.25 odometer: 00389.4 42.7 mpg
2nd fillup: Gate-Dunn 5/17/12
8.6_gallons $3.49 $29.80
odometer: 772
3rd fillup-Shell @ Emerson 5/24/12
9.3 gallons $3.48 $32.25
Odometer 1142 371 miles
39.9 mpg
Gate-Dunn 5/29/12 fillup
2.66 gall0ons $3.389 $9.01 Odometer 1248
Gate-Dunn
5/31/12 fillup
3.25gallons ( $3.389) Odometer 1401 $11.00
BP-Ocala Return from Tampa 6/3/12 (not fil-up)
3.0 gallons $3.47 Odometer 1820 $10.00
Marathon-Ocala 6/3/12 (fillup)
6.7 gallons $3.239 $21.75
Odometer 1829
Total
42.7 gallons 33 days 1829 miles = 42.8 mpg
Total Spent
$147.06 to date or 8.04 cents/mile
Crown Vic equivalence:
1829 miles divided by 20 = 91.49 gallons @
3.44/gallon = $314.40
Saved $167.33 in month of May
Month
Two: June 2012
Gate-Dunn 6/4/12
3.3 gallons $3.319 $10.90 1974 miles
Gate-Dunn
6/11/12
8.4 gallons $3.269 $27.51 2350 miles
Shell-Hodges 6/17/12
8.2 gallons $3.289 $27.00 2714
Gate-Dunn 6/26/12
8.9 gallons $3.179 $28.25
3107.5 miles
Gate-Dunn 7/2/12
3.2 Gallons $3.139
$10.00
Shell-Hodges 7/3/12
8.55 gallons $3.159 $27.01
3626.5
June Total 40.55 gallons 1797.5 miles 29 days 44.33 mpg
2 Month Total 83.25 gallons 62 days 3625.5 miles = 43.55 mpg
Total Spent $277.73 to date avg $3.336/gal or 7.66 cents/mile
Crown Vic equivalence:
3625.5 miles divided by 20 = 181.28 gallons @ 3.336/gallon
= $604.74
Saved
$327.00 for two months (May,June)
Environment saved:
181.3-83.3
= 98 less gallons or 1764 less pounds of CO2
Month
Three: July 2012
Gate-Dunn 7/10/12
8.13 gallons $3.229
$26.25 3980.6
Shell-Hodges 7/21/12 (misplaced receipt)
8.2 Gallons $3.269 $26.80
Kangaroo Express 7/24/12
8.81 gallons $3.349 $29.58 4755
Gate-Dunn 7/26/12
3.07 gallons $3.339 $10.25
4867
Gate-Dunn
8/6/12
5.45 gallons $3.489 $19.02 5113f
New
Total: 5113 miles
July Total 33.66 gallons 1487.5 miles 27 days
$111.90 7.52cent/mile or 44.19 mpg
3 Month Total $116.91 gallons 5113 miles = 43.7 mpg
Total Spent $389.63 to date 89 days or 7.62
cents/mile
***********************************************************
Drove My
2007 Crown VIC to Sarasota for week at the beach
Gate-Dunn 9/04/12 f
11.418 Gallons $3.679 $42.81 f Odometer
91284
Sams Club-Ocala
8/4/12
17.160 gallons $3.439 $59.01
91065 fillup
Shell-Sarasota
8/4/12
7.154 gallons $3.499 $25.03
Pilot-Ocala 7/28/12
7.880 gallons $3.299 $26.00
90614 ?
Last
fillup May 2012 90461
823 miles $152.85 spent 43.612 gallons =
18.57 cents/mile
equivalent Prius 823x7.52 = $61.88 (extra $90.96 spent) or
18.9
gallons Prius Equivalent or used 24.7 extra gallons at a cost of 469.3 extra pounds
of CO2 added to the environment.
************************************************************
My
gasoline project has been a habit for the last four years.
My
data for my Prius which is one and half years old 31,078 miles later is
available for a student to enter into a spreadsheet and draw conclusions from
the data.
Your
gasoline project for vehicle is due the last week of the term May 5th , equivalent to at least three labs (60
points for data collection and presentation; 30 points for summary and
conclusions). Additional points may be earned for additional cars used in the
family if you have complete 3.5-4 months of data collected.