When did American’s start calling petroleum “Gas”?
And does this cause any confusion, since it’s clearly a liquid fuel? And is petroleum and gasoline really the same?
And does this cause any confusion, since it’s clearly a liquid fuel? And is petroleum and gasoline really the same?
December 19th, 2009 at 9:24 am
GAS is short for gasoline.
Now that some cars are going natural gas (propane) yes it is getting confusing.
I was at the auto parts store and the store clerk look up a customer’s car. Then he started going down the list of engine options and one of them was "natural gas". The customer not understanding said "yeah I just use gas". And the store clerk just accepted that.
Of course I had to stop both and ask the customer – do you mean propane or gasoline? Sure enough the customer said "gasoline"?
Good Luck…
December 19th, 2009 at 9:24 am
its been called gas since I was born (i’m 25) and much farther back than that.
gas is short for gasoline… i’ve never found anyone that was confused, but I guess it could happen.
gasoline is a product produced with petroleum. so, technically, americans are more correct with their term gasoline… because petroleum has to be processed before it becomes gasoline.
December 19th, 2009 at 9:24 am
petroleum is the crude product.
Petrol (gasoline) is one of many products produced in the refinery process of the crude.
The shorting of the word is a good explanation.