Consider purchasing fuel for your car. How does a US gallon of gasoline purchased on a hot summer day in Las Vegas, Arizona compare with a US gallon of gasoline purchased on a cold winter night in Anchorage, Alaska? It was determined that a gallon is a volumetric unit, so logic would indicate that the same volume of gasoline was purchased. Yet the temperature difference would cause their densities, and hence their masses, to be different. Using this logic, more mass would be obtained by purchasing gasoline in colder weather. Thinking locally, one might conclude that it is more economical to purchase gasoline during the wee hours of the morning when the temperature is coldest.

As you might suspect, such is not the case. Gasoline pumps compensate for density variation that occurs due to temperature, and in doing so, they measure the amount (mass) of gasoline dispensed. Yet, a gallon of cold gasoline will occupy less volume than when hot. In essence, the measurement of a gallon of gasoline actually refers to its volume at a given temperature (such as 60 degF). As such, this is really a mass measurement unit because it refers to the flow of a specific substance at a given temperature, Returning to the quiz, let’s not be so hasty with the first three questions. They could be incomplete!