carbon footprint

[hurleyjd]

I watched a program this morning on the TV. A was statment made about a family using 1100 gallons of gasoline and this use produced 35000 lbs of carbon. Now how can about 8000 lbs of gas contain 35000 lbs of carbon. Any way if you want to caculate your carbon footprint you can go to this websiste.
http://www.carbonfootprint.com/

 

[badaxemoo]

I think it probably should have said carbon dioxide.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/co2.shtml

 

[Dave]

I don't think you can get 35,000 pounds of carbon dioxide out of 8,000 pounds of gas. The process just takes the carbon out of the hydrocarbon and combines it with two oxygen atoms. The math just doesn't add up. Maybe 3,500 pounds?

 

[*Cowgirl*]

Impossible according to the law of conservation of mass.
Unless you're talking CO2 b/c most of the mass (73%) comes from oxygen which is in the air.

 

[Jogeephus]

They are probably using the same equation that results in second hand cigarette smoke being 800 times more potent than the smoke inhaled by the smoker.