Math

One of my favorite books, Blue Like Jazz, uses imagery and satire to talk "unreligiously" about Christian Culture, mainly in the U.S.  Donald Miller is on the whole easy to digest, however his critics might do well to compare him to Chuck Klosterman, in that sometimes it's an acquired taste, and sometimes you think the guy goes off on tangents like an ADHD kid in a candy store. 

Though I can't quite put into words the power of symbols, similarities, and simulacra, I think a good hypermiler has a "renaissance man" side to him.  One drives a car, goes to work, but uses science, math, shop skills, and other "intellectual tools" to help his car and the planet.  Though this blog focuses mainly on my view of successful hypermiling, a big component of hypermiling knowledge of your car - is- wait for it-math. 

Math.  Some of you love it, some of you love to hate it.  The Least you need to know to be a hypermiler and use math is your MPG.  I personally find no shame in computing your MPG change over the course of a few months.  It's just communicating what you are doing to your loved ones that comes to task, makes hypermilers look like a niche market.

What you do is fairly simple, and even fairly important.  Take your Trip calculator, and the next time you COMPLETELY fill the tank with gas, reset it to zero.  At the end of the month, or whenever you do run out of gas in your tank, check out the trip calculator.  (here is the only moderately tricky part.  Some used cars don't come with manuals showing you how many gallons your gas tank holds.  If this is the case:  Easy solution:  record the amount of gallons in the tank NEXT TIME or when you filled up as it is listed on the meter at the gas station.  Hard solution:  go online to find a pdf or other file for your make and model).  After having done that, take the miles traveled, and divide that by the amount of gallons in your tank.  WHALA you have your MPG.

As previously mentioned, recheck your MPG to see how your car is holding up, especially in the winter.  I'll get to some winter driving techniques when winter arrives. /^^\

QuESTIONS?  COMMENTS?  /^^\