Calculate fuel consumption for your automobile or motorcycle in terms of the number of miles you can drive on average per gallon of fuel consumed. This quantity is a direct measure of how efficient your vehicle is in transforming the energy within fuel to moving the car. According to Car and Driver, factors that affect gas mileage include having under inflated tires, extra items in the trunk and running the air conditioner. In general, smaller vehicles get better gas mileage than larger ones such as trucks. The gas mileage calculation is the same whether the automobile runs on gasoline or diesel fuel.
Fill the gas tank of your vehicle to its maximum capacity. The number of gallons the tank holds can be found in the owner's manual for the vehicle. For example, a small car may have a 10-gallon gas tank.
Note the current mileage on the vehicle's odometer. The odometer measures the number of miles the car has been driven. It's typically located on the speedometer of the car, truck or motorcycle. As an illustration, assume the current mileage is 22,000 miles.
Drive the automobile until the gas tank is nearly empty. Note the number on the odometer. Suppose the new mileage for the vehicle is 22,363 miles.
Subtract the lower mileage from the higher mileage to attain the net miles driven on the last tank of fuel. Completing this step leads to 22,363 miles minus 22,000 miles equals 363 miles.
Divide the net miles driven (363) by the number of gallons of fuel your vehicle holds (10) to obtain the its fuel presumption in miles per gallon. The result yields 36.3 miles per gallon.
