Essay Question: What are some things that you can do now to make the most of that third of a million pushups* worth of ordered energy, if indeed it's there, in each gallon of fossil-fuel gasoline (non-renewable) that you use?

For example...

• What guidelines for use of your automobile might make each gallon go a bit further?
• What's most usefully done with your gasoline engine while waiting for fast food?
• Which uses more gasoline: Holding speed constant or rapidly accelerating?
• What things (e.g. racks, open windows) affect the energy your car dissipates in its turbulent wake at high speed?
• Can you choose paths from point A to B which make those Calories in your gas tank last longer?
• How do driving time, distance, and speed all figure in?
• Does going up hills and down hills, or do stop signs, have a significant impact on the energy one wastes?
• Which impacts mileage more: air conditioner on, fan on, lights on, or cell phone recharge through the lighter jack?
• Are there things other than fossil fuel that you can put in your gas tank to help out?
• Would dimples in your car's finish-coat help, like they do on a golf ball? Or tennis ball fuzz?
• How much do tires low on air, and extra junk in the trunk, add to your mileage?
• Do some cars take gasoline's energy and do more with it than others, before the energy is turned into ambient heat?
• Is your car optimizing the fuel-air mixture to ensure complete combustion, and to control byproducts as well?
• Where at in the combustion chamber is your fuel being injected, and how might that help out?
• Does compression ratio, or burn temperature, have a role to play here?
• What cars have regenerative braking, and how much further does this make a gallon of gasoline go?
• In what rpm ranges are car engines most efficient, and are some cars designed with these ranges in mind?
• Is there value in converting energy from gasoline into electricity (or something else) rather than using it to drive?
• How does the efficiency of gas fired power plants compare to that of Otto or Diesel combustion engines?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of today's plugin hybrids and electric cars?
• What assumptions constrain that assertion about a gallon of gasoline and a third of a million pushups?
• Do folks with greater weight and longer limbs require more energy to do a pushup than others?
• Does the calculation consider respiration energy, as well as energy required for the lift?
• What are likely averages, and standard deviations, for a pushup's energy in the population at large?
• Would increases in gravity, air pressure, or surface springiness affect the work required?
• How does one determine the work available from a molecule (or gallon) of pent/hex/hept/oct-ane?
• How might questions like this be posed to help the reader discover informed creative answers in a finite time?
• Would lists, like this, of possible follow-on directions come in handy?