With a full tank of gas,

Question

With a full tank of gas, you can drive 500 miles and your car can go 27 miles per gallon.

Write an equation to model this situation (use m for miles you can drive and g for gallons in the tank).

Answer 1

The only thing not given in the problem is the capacity of the tank, in gals, as we know the total miles available from a full tank and the mileage. The capacity of the tank is the no. of gals needed to go 500 mi. at a usage rate of 27 mi/gal.

Can use unit or dimensional analysis to set up the problem. gal req'd = mi x gal/mi. So gal = 500 mi x

1 gal/27 mi ≅ 18.5 gal., the capacity of the tank.