Fuel Burn Adjustment Formula

All,

I'm having the following difficulty (see attached file):

- Say I have five locations.
- Each location has a distance requirement that i'd need to travel with my car (Location 1 = 100 miles, Location 2 = 30 miles, etc.).
- My car has a MPG and a fuel capacity of x.
- I can refuel at any location as many times as I want (topping off my fuel tank)
- In some instances, due to my fuel burn and fuel capacity, I run out of gas at some locations, but not others.

I'd like to write a formula that will adjust/reduce the distance requirement at each location so I don't run out of gas anywhere. The formula should update based upon where I choose to refuel.

The attached workbook should give more insight into this issue.

Thanks to all!

Best,
Chris

If your car has a fuel capacity of x and MPG of y, then it has a max range of z = x * y. Any distance beyond that range is infeasible.

Given your vehicle's actual fuel level at a starting point, that fuel level * y gives the max range you could travel to the 1st location. If you could fill up at that location, your max range would be z. If you can refuel at your last location to go home but can't refuel at home the next workday, then your 1st location that day would need to be within your feasible range.

If you can refuel at any location other than home, then feasible distances between any location and another is z. It'd seem to be only getting home from your last location one day then to your first location the next day should in total be at most z. As long as any locations are within z of any other locations, and you can refuel at each location, there should be no problems getting from any location to another.