Matthew is a backpacker and fisherman, but his true love is wakeboarding. He is interested in a career as an archaeologist because, he says, "I like ancient Greek and Roman artifacts."
Ethanol burns cleanly, but if it is to compete with gasoline on the market, ethanol will need to offer fuel efficiency at a cost-effective price. Matthew reasoned that he could test these mileage- and cost-efficiency questions by putting ethanol or gasoline in a car and driving it. But the test would be inexact, and he can't drive. So he used a chainsaw. Matthew hypothesized that an ethanol mixture would be less efficient than ordinary gasoline.
For safety reasons, Matthew removed the chain and bar from the saw. He acquired high- and low-octane gasoline and a mixture that was 75 percent gasoline and 25 percent ethanol. He placed 33 milliliters of fuel at a time in the chainsaw and used a tachometer to stabilize the saw's revolutions per minute (RPMs) as he operated it. While he did this, his father timed how long it took for the saw to burn up the fuel, typically a few minutes. After testing each fuel 10 times, Matthew tossed out the highest and lowest scores for each fuel and averaged the others. The ethanol mixture ran the saw significantly longer than either gasoline. Also, the ethanol blend yielded about 18,000 RPMs per penny, whereas the gasoline delivered less than 13,000.
