![[cheap gas picture]](/~gdt/babs/images/cheapgas.jpg)
In 1932 the price of gas was $0.277 per gallon.
On 06 February 2005, I paid $1.899 per gallon.
The 2005 price is
585.6%
higher than the 1932 price.
{
current Scottsdale gas prices
}
Compute the cost for 10 gallons of gas in 1932 compared to 2005. 1932 $0.277 per gallon ... 2005 $1.899 per gallon $ 0.277 $ 1.899 x 10 x 10 -------- -------- $ 2.77 $ 18.99
If we do some rounding to the nearest whole numbers,
the per-gallon price of gas in 1932 was about $3
compared to $19 in 2005. Earlier it was
mentioned that this is a
585.6%
increase over the span of 73 years (2005 - 1932).
How did we compute the percentage change between the prices?
((1.899 - 0.277) / 0.277) * 100
1.899
- 0.277
-------
1.622
(1.622 / 0.277) * 100
_
1.622 / 0.277 is equal to 5.8555
_
5.8555 rounded to three decimal places is 5.856
5.856 * 100 is equal to 585.6%
In other words, $1.899 is 585.6%
more than $0.277.
Update: 13 May 2005]
The Spring 2005 semester ended with gas prices at approximately
$2.29which is727%higher than gas prices in 1932.727%is a large percentage increase, but when inflation is taken into consideration it may be today's gas prices that are "cheap." {GDT::MAT082::Bit:: Gas Prices--1932 Versus Mid-May 2005}
