Rate Versus Weight

Weight versus Rate:

The Relation of Vehicle Weight to Fuel Consumption

Darren Jay Chapman

Davenport University

The Relation of Vehicle Weight to Fuel Consumption

The purpose of this brief analysis was to determine the possible correlation of vehicle weight to fuel-consumption (MPG). The vehicles selected for the analysis are all classified as high performance-sports cars and are models manufactured in 2006-2008. Although the performance packages may differ, the basic vehicle designs are two door coupe models with manual transmissions. The study does not account for aftermarket modifications or individual driving habits. The vehicles were randomly selected without replacement from Fuel Economy.Gov a website that list vehicles by class. The vehicle weights and highway MPG were also taken from the same website and can be viewed in table 1 of appendix A (Energy, 2008). The method used to select the vehicles was the roll of a fair die and the number rolled was counted down from the first vehicle on the list to the next vehicle corresponding to the number rolled on the die. The die was then rolled again and the same procedure was used beginning with the vehicle just chosen. The procedure was repeated until all thirty pieces of the data were collected (n = 30).

My initial belief about the correlation is there is a relationship between the weight of a vehicle and its fuel-consumption (MPG). The strength of this correlation will be determined later. Liner correlation requirements have been satisfied by the data being randomly chosen and are quantitative in nature. The vehicle weight has been assigned as the independent or predictor variable and the MPG has been assigned as the dependent or response variable. The data is normally distributed for both the vehicle weight and the highway MPG. Figure 1 provides an overall view of the data collection indicating the mean, median, mode, midrange and standard deviation; a histogram of each variable with fit...