Gasoline specific weight. Weight of 1 liter of gasoline

It is extremely difficult to imagine the modern world without fuel obtained from petroleum refining. Gasoline and diesel fuel are used everywhere, in almost all industries. Knowledge of gasoline qualities and characteristics is especially important for drivers.

What Is Gasoline?

The human mind is constantly searching for something new. After the appearance of steam locomotives and railways, the time came for the invention of the internal combustion engine.

The first oil refinery was built in 1745, but simple oil distillation produced only kerosene, which was used for lighting lamps. In 1825, British physicist Michael Faraday first obtained the first sample of real gasoline through numerous chemical experiments. More precisely, it was the first sample of a hydrocarbon mixture with minimal ignition conditions. Later, gasoline would be considered a mixture of light hydrocarbons with a varied boiling temperature range from +33 to +205 °C.

The specific smell of the substance and the country from which Faraday received raw material for experiments led the physicist to an association with an Arabic word meaning “fragrance.” This is how gasoline got its name.

The creation of the gasoline engine and the first automobile followed a difficult path. Many inventors contributed to what almost every one of us uses today.

How Much Does Gasoline Weigh?

One of the main characteristics of gasoline is octane number, but it has almost no effect on gasoline density and mass. At a temperature of about +15 °C, 1 liter of gasoline weighs on average approximately 0.70-0.78 kg, or 700-780 g. It is lighter than water, as shown in the table below.

Interesting Facts About Gasoline

• Gasoline is a mixture of light hydrocarbons, so its density is not a fixed value. The weight of one liter depends on fuel composition, seasonal additives and temperature.
• Gasoline expands when heated and occupies a smaller volume when cooled. In accurate accounting, volume is often corrected to a reference temperature of +15 °C.
• Gasoline is lighter than water and mixes with it poorly, so spills usually float on the surface. At the same time, gasoline vapors ignite easily, so mass calculations do not replace fire-safety rules.
• Octane rating describes the fuel’s resistance to engine knock, but it does not directly determine how much one liter of gasoline weighs.
• In older straight-run refining, only a limited share of gasoline-range fractions was obtained. Modern refining methods, including cracking and reforming, allow more high-quality motor fuel to be produced from crude oil.
• The development of gasoline engines and cars was not the work of one inventor only, but a chain of engineering advances in fuel chemistry, ignition systems and engine design.