Gas Prices?

[suspendedhatch]

I read that gas will go up to $2.50 by the summer. And that it NEEDS to be above $3.00 gallon (but not too high).

[theholycow]

I sure don't need it to be above $3!

[trollbait]

Originally Posted by bobc455

Back in the day, gasoline was something like 9.3 cents per gallon. Then it went up to 9.4 cents per gallon and everybody freaked. You know the drill.

Anyhow, since traditionally there was always a fractional value attached to the price of gas, it just stuck. Pumps could easily pump for $1.93.5 instead of $1.92.9, but since they have the decimal place there they just put it as high as possible (to get as much money as you from possible).

It's kinda the same way that a new couch will cost you $999 instead of $1,000- essentially the same price, but one seems less than the other.

-BC

I've heard that gas pumps don't use the common sense rule for rounding the fraction. I don't remember the arcane method they use, but it works out to rounding up 2/3 the time instead of 1/2. It was on a site discussing the advantage of using temp-adjusted gas price for the consumer, which I can't find at the moment.

[zero_gravity]

they've been temp. adjusted ever since i can remember up here in canada. maybe its because our climate goes to both extremes every year. there's a sticker on all pumps that says something like 'volume corrected to 15?C'

quite frankly i'm shocked if this doesnt exist elsewhere in the world

[palemelanesian]

In my mileage spreadsheet, I calculate $/gal by dividing total cost by total gallons. It works out to the correct _.__9 every time. No shenanigans that I've found.

[Jay2TheRescue]

I thought that pumps rounded up. If the pump calculates the sale at $9.991 it displays $10.00.

-Jay

[GasSavers_GasUser]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

I thought that pumps rounded up. If the pump calculates the sale at $9.991 it displays $10.00.

-Jay

Yea, they do. But what I meant was the price was always listed as a dollar amount + 9/10ths of a cent.

[JanGeo]

Originally Posted by KU40

That's dumb.

Or there is something else at work here . . . . check it out! Low in December then it start to climb.

http://www.massachusettsgasprices.co...ice_chart.aspx

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by JanGeo

Or there is something else at work here . . . . check it out! Low in December then it start to climb.

http://www.massachusettsgasprices.co...ice_chart.aspx

Nice site.

[KU40]

Originally Posted by theholycow

The price goes up in the winter even though supply is the same because of increased demand. Cars are less efficient (and idled more), and then there's all the energy that goes into heating buildings.

True. I realize there are economic reasons, I just don't like them so I call them dumb. I just want my cheap gas all year-round regardless.