On a random day during my time in Scotland, I pull to the pump to fill the car’s tank with petrol (English speak for gasoline). The price on this particular day is £1.42 per liter.
Bear with me as I use some of my math skills to get where I’m going.
One US gallon (not to be confused with the UK gallon) contains 3.7854118 liters.
Thus the price for one US gallon of gasoline on this day would be £5.375284756.
On this random day, the exchange rate of British pounds to US dollars (as opposed to Australian or Canadian or Hong Kong or 21 or so other kinds of dollars) is: £1 = $1.5896.
That means that one US gallon of petrol or gasoline, if you prefer, on this day, cost $8.5445526581376, or rounded off, $8.54.
Whew! Let me say that again, as living in the United States, it can be hard to wrap our minds around this: in the United Kingdom, to buy gasoline costs roughly $8.54 per gallon.
Cars are generally smaller there and gas efficiency - miles per gallon - for vehicles is generally much better than in the United States (a friend with an SUV actually gets 35 miles to the gallon, although I’m not sure if that’s the US gallon or the UK gallon – you begin to see how tricky this is).
And distances routinely driven are generally much shorter there than here. And mass transportation (bus and train) is much more readily available in the UK than in the US.
But this was the promise I made to myself while I was standing at that petrol pump a few weeks back: the next time I get mad/flustered/upset/enraged/disheartened about the cost to fuel my automobile back home, I am going to remember that what I pay is still less than half of what they’re paying in the United Kingdom and I’m going to calm down just a bit . . . well, until, that is, I remember that they have universal health care here and we do not.
Oops - I’m already back on the roller coaster of comparisons before I’ve even gotten my land legs back – here we go again!
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| From Flickr Commons by DRAMOS 19 |
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