How to Predict Fuel Consumption

Predicting the number of gallons your vehicle requires to get to a specific destination can be valuable information to accurately predict the fuel cost of the trip. In addition, this knowledge is especially valuable when driving for long distances in remote areas, where there is often a great distance between gas stations. Suppose, for example, that you wanted to drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco, which is 383 miles away. At 20 miles per gallon, how much gas will the car use for the trip?

Instructions

1. Determine the total number of miles from your starting point to your destination. Here, there are 383 miles between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

2. Determine how many miles per gallon your vehicle gets. Here, the vehicle in this example uses 1 gallon of gasoline to travel 20 miles.

3. Divide the number of miles to be traveled by the miles per gallon. In this example, divide 383 by 20.

4. The resulting number is the total number of gallons of gasoline required to reach your destination. In this example, it would take 19.15 gallons to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco.