6. Gasoline currently costs $2.25 per gallon. Use this data and that from the questions above to find out which car costs the least for a fillup- the Mercedes, the Toyota, or the Honda?
7. Right now hydrogen-powered vehicles operate at 35% efficiency. The manufacturers hope to boost that up to 70% in three years. What would the driving ranges of the Mercedes and Honda be if that happens?
8. The top speed of the Mercedes is 87 miles per hour. For how many hours could one drive the Mercedes with the petal to the metal?
9. Each Mercedes right now costs $500,000 and they have made 19 so far. Based on that, how much money has Mercedes sunk into their project so far? Level One Only: Express your answer using scientific notation.
10. Ok, here’s the big question. We’ve seen that the Mercedes gets 35 miles per kilogram of fuel. How does that compare to my Toyota, which gets 30 miles per gallon? (Helpful conversions: 1 gallon = 4.2 liters; 1 liter of gasoline has a mass of 0.7 kilograms).
11. OK, here is my favorite question. I’ve heard that the plug-in hybrids are cheaper to operate, since electricity is cheaper than gas. Being a skeptical scientist, I hunted around for data to support this. I found all kinds of bizarre and useless data, but here is the key data that makes for valid comparisons. Our gas powered car gets 30 miles per gallon, and gas currently costs $3.20 per gallon. A Toyota prius consumes 0.253 kilowatt-hours (kwh) per mile, and the electricity costs 10 cents per kwh. Calculate the costs per mile for each vehicle. How do they compare?
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