Today I stopped at a 7-11 to fill up my car. (..hey, Paul!..I live within =1= mile of this 7-11...does this mean my family is BURNT toast?) I asked for a receipt and when I got home, I noticed the receipt was dated 02/01/1999, with a purchase of 2.65 gallons at a price of 7.53 per gallon! The amount 20.00 was correct, and my tank was filled. The digital readout on the pump read the proper gallons, (26.5), and the proper price per gallon (74.9), and the total price (20.00). The 1999 date was the first thing I noticed, since the **/**/xx dating has been so prevalent over the years.

333 days, 6 hours and counting.......d o Willis in OKC, OK on 02/01/1999 w n......

-- Willis (BANDIT1@ontheroad.com), February 01, 1999

Answers

A) Maybe while changing the software to four-digit years, a programmer misplaced a couple of decimal points.

but

B) There may be some miscalibration at the pump or other error. The amounts should be accurate enough not to make a penny's difference in a $20 purchase, I would expect.

But a check of the arithmetic shows that you may want to call your city or state weights and measures department and ask them to check that station.

If the 2.65 gallons and $7.53/gallon were just decimal-shifted, your total amount should have been 2.65 x 7.53 = 19.9545, rounded to no more than $19.96, not $20.00 -- a $0.04 or 0.2% discrepancy.

But you seem to be saying that the posted price per gallon was 74.9 cents, not 75.3 cents.

If the correct gallonage was 26.5 and the correct price/gallon was $0.749, your total amount should have been 26.5 x 0.749 = 19.8485, rounded to no more than $19.85, not $20.00 -- a $0.15 or 0.7% discrepancy.

Or perhaps you actually got 20.00/0.749 = 26.7 gallons instead of 26.5 gallons, a discrepancy of 0.2 gallon.

I'm good enough at mental arithmetic so that I often double-check that the gallonage and price per gallon shown on gas pump digital readouts match the displayed total cost, and in years of doing this I've never seen a discrepancy of more than $0.01 for a tank fillup in the $15 range. So I know that gas pump computers and metering are capable of 0.07% accuracy at least. Your figures indicate that that 7-11 station's error is three to ten times the maximum I've seen.

Call your weights and measures bureau.

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), February 02, 1999.