One person buys a compact sedan that costs $21,000 and gets 25 miles per gallon. Another person pays $25,000 for the hybrid version of the same compact sedan, which gets 50 miles per gallon. Each owner drives 12,000 miles per year and plans on keeping the vehicle for 10 years. A gallon of gas emits 20 pounds of CO, when burned in an internal combustion engine. The average cost of a gallon of gas over the 10-year ownership period is $3.00.

a. Calculate how many gallons of gas each vehicle uses per year.

b. Calculate the cost of the gas that each vehicle uses per year.

c. Calculate the amount of CO, that each vehicle emits per year.

The answer is below

Explanation:

a) compact sedan costs $21,000 and can go 25 miles per gallon. If owner drives 12000 miles per year, the number of gallons needed is:

number of compact sedan gallons needed per year = distance covered in a year / distance covered per gallon = 12000 miles per year / 25 miles per gallon = 480 gallons

Hybrid compact sedan costs $25,000 and can go 50 miles per gallon. If owner drives 12000 miles per year, the number of gallons needed is:

number of hybrid compact sedan gallons needed per year = distance covered in a year / distance covered per gallon = 12000 miles per year / 50 miles per gallon = 240 gallons

b) cost of compact sedan gas needed per year = number of gallons needed * cost of gallon = 480 gallons * $21000 = $10,080,000

cost of hybrid compact sedan gas needed per year = number of gallons needed * cost of gallon = 240 gallons * $25000 = $6,000,000

c) Amount of CO emitted by compact sedan gas vehicle = number of gallons * 20 pounds of CO per gallon = 480 gallons * 20 pounds of CO = 9600 pounds

Amount of CO emitted by hybrid compact sedan gas vehicle = number of gallons * 20 pounds of CO per gallon = 240 gallons * 20 pounds of CO = 4800 pounds