Thursday, March 30, 2006

inner dork: gasoline

Seeing as how gas managed to jump $.20 over night, I thought today's dorking would be all about gasoline factoids.

Have you ever wondered why there are three decimal places after the price of gas?

Did you know that for several years the tax on gas was less than one cent per gallon? The tax would be $0.009 and if the price per gallon was $0.25, then the two together would become $0.259. Over a period of time this simply became common practice.

The price of gasoline is determined by the price of crude oil, refining costs, transportation, storage costs, and taxes. Today, taxes are often 40% (or more) of the cost per gallon.

The first gas station that was designed for the servicing of automobiles was opened in St. Louis, Mo, in 1907.

Two gallons of recycled engine oil can generate enough electricity to run an average house for a day or run a television set for 180 hours.

Crude oil is often referred to as petroleum, which means, "liquid rock."

6 comments:

Poz Mikey said...

Thanks for the facts

Party Girl said...

Mikey: just the facts, ma'am. (Sorry, it reminded me of Dragnet)
The dork on Thursday's, always about the facts!

Jay: How could you forget about inner dork Thursdays? (When you post your next new post...) Silly. Just silly!

I look forward to hearing all the details!
*Oh, throb, throb*

TheComish said...

Gas out here in So. Cal. is almost $3.00... I think I paid $2.85 the other day.

Jay Adkins said...

Petroleum, eh?


Demand for petroleum products in the United States averaged 19.7 million barrels per day in 2004. This represents about 3 gallons of petroleum each day for every person in the country. By comparison, petroleum demand averaged about 2 gallons per person per day in the early 1950's and nearly 3.6 gallons per person per day in 1978. In 2004 petroleum products contributed about 40.2 percent of the energy used in the United States. This is a larger share than any other energy source including natural gas with a 23 percent share, coal with about a 22 percent share, and the combination of nuclear, hydroelectric, geothermal and other sources comprising the remaining 14 percent share. 1 It is projected that petroleum consumption in the United States will increase by 1.5 percent annually, reaching 27.9 million barrels per day by the year 2025.

Petroleum products fall into three major categories: fuels such as motor gasoline and distillate fuel oil (diesel fuel); finished nonfuel products such as solvents and lubricating oils; and feedstocks for the petrochemical industry such as naphtha and various refinery gases.

You already know about fuels, so we'll skip that part.

Nonfuel use of petroleum is small compared with fuel use, but petroleum products account for about 89 percent of the Nation's total energy consumption for nonfuel uses. There are many nonfuel uses for petroleum, including various specialized products for use in the textile, metallurgical, electrical, and other industries. A partial list of nonfuel uses for petroleum includes:

• Solvents such as those used in paints, lacquers, and printing inks
• Lubricating oils and greases for automobile engines and other machinery
• Petroleum (or paraffin) wax used in candy making, packaging, candles, matches, and polishes
• Petrolatum (petroleum jelly) sometimes blended with paraffin wax in medical products and toiletries
• Asphalt used to pave roads and airfields, to surface canals and reservoirs, and to make roofing materials and floor coverings
• Petroleum coke used as a raw material for many carbon and graphite products, including furnace electrodes and liners, and the anodes used in the production of aluminum.
• Petroleum Feedstocks used as chemical feedstock derived from petroleum principally for the manufacture of chemicals, synthetic rubber, and a variety of plastics.

Petroleum feedstocks have been used in the commercial production of petrochemicals since the 1920's. Petrochemical feedstocks are converted to basic chemical building blocks and intermediates used to produce plastics, synthetic rubber, synthetic fibers, drugs, and detergents. Naphtha, one of the basic feedstocks, is a liquid obtained from the refining of crude oil.

That's all for now.

I'll be posting another comment about my fantasy with the ever so lovely Party Girl tomorrow evening.

I do love to tease. ;P

Poz Mikey said...

Are we on the same wave length.I used a Dragnet joke at the begging of "He did not kill a cop Really (well almost)" in that posting. LOLOLOL

Party Girl said...

Jay: kisses!
And I am SOOO looking forward to hearing your fantasy! *throb, throb*

Norm: that is simply ridiculous! Craziness.

Mikey: great minds

girlgoyle: yes, yes it is!