What A Gas

Ever so slowly the price of gasoline creeps upwards. It wasn’t too long ago when the cost of a gallon of gasoline became a political priority to keep its price down, because above all, to influence the price of gas was to appear to be in control. As with all things political, once the prices stabilized then other problems and complaints took front stage. But here the threat returns once more to shadow any hope of a carefree life. 

We need our gasoline. The United States drank up 134 million gallons of the stuff last year. American life is nothing, if not dependent on transportation. The Further west you go from New York City, the more spread out the major metropolitan cities becomes; so then, the more reliant the population becomes on roads, which of course then means gas for the cars that travel them becomes the life blood of everyday existence. As this dance with price continues and as the environmentalist say the US is a glutton for energy, I had to pause to consider just what kind of energy is packed into my self-indulgent ways? So I did some research to look into the mystical-magic of what I’ve grown to consider a commodity; as in gas is gas.

When you burn gasoline, under ideal conditions, with plenty of oxygen, you get carbon dioxide (from the carbon atoms in gasoline), water (from the hydrogen atoms) and lots of heat.

A gallon of gasoline contains about 132x106 joules of energy, which is equivalent to 125,000 BTU or 36,650 watt-hours: So let’s put that into comparison with everyday things. If you took a 1,500-watt space heater then left it on full blast for a full 24-hour day, would be about how much heat energy is in a gallon of gas. 

Then, if it were possible for human beings to digest gasoline, a gallon would contain about 31,000 calories. So, the energy in a gallon of gasoline is equivalent to the energy in about 124 regular McDonald’s hamburgers, which at current cost of about a buck a piece, makes a gallon of gas a heck of a great deal. 

 But then too, if you were in, say, Venezuela where a Big Mac runs around $7.92 each, and it’d take 56 of those to equal 31,000 calories, well then you’d have to spend over $443.00 to get the equivalent energy as one gallon of gas. 

So then gas at even $5.00 a gallon would be a really super deal as an energy source.

Well except of course we can’t consume gasoline. But it does entertain the relative value thingie about energy now doesn’t it?