認識汽油-

認識汽油-

Know Something about Gasoline

                                    

1.    Gas that’s blended with ethanol is less efficient

與乙醇混合的汽油效能較低

   

                          乙醇到底是食物還是燃料?

You’ll get between three and five percent less MPG if you’re using gas with 10% ethanol in your tank. If you’re concerned about mileage, go for pure gas.

如果你在你的油箱中使用含 10%的乙醇，每加侖的(英哩)哩程數會減少3-5%之間的里程數。如果你想多跑一點里程，就加純汽油吧。(MPG=Mile Per Gallon-每加崙里程數)

        

2.    Gasoline changes with the weather.

汽油隨天氣變化

Gas boils very easily—that’s both bad for the environment and not great for your fuel tank—so the formula you’re pumping is altered to fit the conditions. In other words, the stuff you buy in January in Denver has a much lower boiling point than the stuff you buy in Atlanta in August.

汽油很容易沸騰 — 這是既對環境有害，對你的油箱也不太好 — 所以你加油機的公式改變，以適應不同的條件。換句話說，你在丹佛市(科羅拉多州)一月份買的油品，比你 8 月份在亞特蘭大(喬治亞州)買的有更低的沸點。

3.    That’s also a big reason why prices fall in the winter

這也是為什麼在冬天油價會降的一大原因

The refineries mix in more butane for the winter. Butane’s pretty cheap compared to gasoline. It also evaporates at a lower temperature, which is why it’s used far less in the summer.

煉油廠在冬天混合更多的丁烷在汽油內。丁烷比汽油便宜很多。它在較低溫度時也會蒸發，這就是為什麼它用在夏天要少得多。

4.    Gas has detergents in it.

汽油內內含洗潔劑。

   

No, that doesn’t mean dish soap or that stuff that gets your clothes clean. In layman’s terms, there are additives that chemically bond to various molecules, to help prevent excess buildup in your engine.

不，這並不意味著洗碗精或使你的衣服乾淨的東西。通俗地說，汽油內含有添加劑，它與各種微粒分子以化學性方式粘合，以防止過量堆積在你的引擎。

5.    You’ll get the same exact gasoline no matter where you buy it from

無論你在哪裡加油，你會得到相同的準切的汽油

It doesn’t matter if you go to Shell, Exxon, Conoco, or Walmart, it all gets mixed together in the pipelines before hitting the storage depots.

如果你去殼牌、 埃克森美孚、 康菲石油或沃爾瑪加油，它在油管中早已混合一起，在到達存儲倉庫之前。

6.    That said, additives make a huge difference, so stick to the big guys

這就是說，添加劑產生巨大的差異，所以要堅持用大公司產品

All those detergents are added in as the tanker truck's filled, and the cheapo places don't use as much. There’s actually something called Top Tier Gas, which sets guidelines developed by manufacturers like GM and BMW for how much detergent should be your gas. To be officially listed as a Top Tier Gas supplier, there must be roughly 2.5 times more detergent than the EPA minimum standard. The full list of companies that meet that standard is right here. While not every non-Top Tier company sucks (think BP), you probably don’t want to use your local grocery store's gas all the time.

在載油的油罐卡車裝滿之同時，所有這些清潔劑就被加入。而廉價的地方就沒有加入那麼多。實際上是有一種叫做頂部層氣體，它的設置準則由通用汽車、 寶馬等廠家研製，來決定在你的汽油中應該加多少洗滌劑。若要被正式列為頂部層氣體的供應商，必須要有比EPA(環保局) 最低標準，多出 2.5 倍的洗滌劑。達到這一標準的公司的完整名單就在這裡。雖然並非每家頂部層氣體的公司都不好 （認為 BP），但你可能不想老是購買您當地雜貨店的廉價汽油。

7.    Gas has been priced to a tenth of a cent since the 1930s

自1930 年代以來，汽油的售價定在一分錢的十分之一

That coincides with the federal government instituting a $0.001/gal tax. Also, because gas was generally between 20 and 30 cents at the time, fractions of a cent made a much more significant difference than they do today.

正吻合聯邦政府徵收0.001 美元/每加侖的稅收。同時，因為當時汽油價格一般在 20 至 30 美分，比起今天，一分錢的幾分之幾就有更加顯著的差異。

8.    Your final total, though, is rounded.

雖然你最後的總數是完整的。

It’s pretty basic: If your total ends in 0.4 cents or less, it’s rounded down. 0.5 or up goes up.

它是非常基本的︰ 如果您的總數在 0.4 美分或更少，它向下舍入。0.5 或多一點。

9. The federal gas tax hasn’t changed since 1997.

自 1997 年以來，聯邦汽油稅沒有改變

It was 18.4 cents in 1997, just as it is today. The fluctuation you see is actually the state taxes, which on average run just over 30 cents per gallon.

就像今天一樣，在1997 年是 18.4 美分。你看到的波動是實際上的州稅，平均剛剛超過每加侖 30 美分。

9.    In 1986, two Austin gas stations gave the stuff away for free.

1986 年，兩個 Austin(德州)油站免費供應

Gas prices were plummeting everywhere, and in Austin, stations were drawn into a bidding war. Most stations were charging 26 cents, but two stations offered free gas, resulting in lines so long that people ran out of the very thing they were in line to get.

汽油價格到處直線下降，另在 Austin，加油站捲入了一場削價戰。大多數站筆售26 美分，但有兩個加油站提供免費贈送，結果導致因排隊等候加油的人太多，而加不到油。

10. At one point, you could buy gas from Sears, J. C. Penney, and The Home Depot.

在某方面講，你可以在西爾斯、 J.C.Penney, 家用物品總匯去加油。

Sears and J. C. Penney sold gas in the 1960s and 1970s, nearly 20 years before Walmart and Kroger got into the game. Home Depot experimented with it in the mid 2000s.

比沃爾瑪和克羅格近早20 年，西爾斯和 J.C.Penney 在 1960 年代和 1970 年代，就開始加入賣汽油的競賽行列。而家用物品總匯則遲到 2000 年代中期，才嘗試販賣。

11. There were twice as many gas stations in the 1920s as there are today.

今天的加油站數目比1920年代多出一倍。

12.  Sounds crazy, right? Realistically, most of those places were the size of newsstands, set up in a matter of minutes to cater to heavy traffic areas.

聽起來很瘋狂，對嗎？實際上，從前大部分這些地方的體積尺寸和報攤一樣，在短短幾分鐘內設置好，以應付交通繁忙地區的需要。

Justin Lai (賴正雄) 編譯

04/26/2016