Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Test: Unit Analysis

I am running a test.  I would like everyone who reads this post to leave a comment with an answer the following question.

You are planning a vacation in France.  You will be renting a car and driving 500 kilometers.  The rental car gets 35 mpg.  The exchange rate is $1.35 per euro.  Gas in France costs 1.5 euros per liter.  1 mile = 1.61 kilometers.  1 gallon = 3.79 liters.  How much, in dollars, will you spend on gas?

Also, if you don't mind, can you tell me how long it took you to solve?  Thanks.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

$67.97, assuming you purchase only the gas you'd burn....and about 2 minutes.

Anonymous said...

I let Bob figure it out, sit back and enjoy the ride :-) - I'll send you some pictures!

E said...

Yeek. A word problem. Haven't seen one of these in a while... Assuming this is a one-way route (or has round trip already figured in), and the car is returned with the same amount of gas it had when it was obtained:

Ok, after a horribly mangled attempt with just pen and paper wherein E got bogged down trying to remember where to move decimals, E realized kmpg had never been converted to kmpl.
So, E started over with calculator. 4 and a half minutes later, the outcome was US$ 68.14, give or take 3-4 cents for at least one accidentally left out significant digit.

Anonymous said...

I got $68.10; yeah, several minutes.