Hello everyone! I am a high school student and I am currently doing a science fair project on gas mileage. I am studing the advantage vs. disadvantage of carpooling on mileage and emissions. If adding 100 pounds to your car reduces mileage by 2% and you carry 4 people at an average weight of 140 pounds per person does it reduce the mileage able to travel at a significant enough rate that carpooling really does not do anything but reduce the number of cars on the highway and not the amount of fuel consumed and reduce emissions. This may not be the right place to post this question, but I would welcome all comments and information about your hybrids and gas milage and if you carpool, does it effect the gas mileage you get?

I carpool weekly, with 2 and sometimes 3 people. I also carpool with the family as well, though since one of them got a Prius, we've been using her car at times. Anyway, there's a slight MPG drop, but it's very slight for me, I've taken the trip alone, and gotten 38.4 MPG, and taken it with two people and gotten 37.8 MPG, (The next week in similar weather and traffic conditions) it's a pretty minimal difference. Since it's a 48 mile round trip, I burn a over gallon of gas making it. Should we have ridden in seperate vehicles, I got 38.4, they'd have gotten 32 and 30 MPG with their vehicles (Pre-prius), so that would be more than 3 gallons of gas for the three of us to make the trip individually. So, we saved the world a two gallons plus of gas by carpooling every week. (Well, not really, we're not so stupid as to have gone in seperate vehicles for each family member) So, we've reduced emissions, since that's based on fuel consumed, and fuel consumption by cutting down 2/3's via carpooling. I'd say that's a pretty big bonus.

Carpooling makes sense with hybrids, especially when several of the carpoolers don't have a hybrid of their own.

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I won't do your homework for you but I will lay out your question as a word problem for you to solve. You can show us your approach to the problem and we can help you from there.

Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice live in the same neighborhood and work together at the local independent bookstore. The distance from work is 15 miles. Each has a Prius and they all hypermile getting 60mpg each.

They each weigh 140lbs and a reduction of 2% is experience for every 100lbs of added weight.

How much gas is consumed round trip by each person traveling alone? All 4 combined?

What will the mpg be with 3 extra passengers?

How much gas is consumed round trip with all 4 in one Prius?

What is the difference in gas consumed 4 cars vs. 1?

Ignoring the 2% per 100lb assumption, what dismal mpg must the carpool gang get before it makes equal sense to continue driving seperately?

You should find that carpooling makes great sense.

If by 4 you meant 5 total people then add a Steve to the equation.

We can get much more complicated if the carpoolers aren't neighbors and there may be additional miles to get everyone there and back, but you can add complexity later.