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Octane on its own is an anti-knock additive. And ethanol actually makes your mileage go down because it is less energy dense.



How can adding octane be an anti-knock additive? Isn't the rating normalized too octane, so it can't bring the average under 100, ever?

Like, compared to even worse carbon chains than octane?

Edit: Never mind got the scale backwards. I'll keep the comment here to shame myself.


Octane is a measure of the relatives ratios of the octane molecule with some other (I can never remember which). 100 octane means the fuel acts in your engine the same as fuel made from 100% octane molecule. 0 octane means it acts like 100% the other, 90 octane mean it acts like a mix of 90% octane and 10% the other.

You can go below 0 or above 100 if you find some other molecule/mix that acts worse/better, though how you extrapolate beyond the 0-100 range is subject to debate, confusion and deception. Ethanol is clearly better than pure octane, though how much depends on how you choose to extend the scale.


There’s also the issue of how/what exactly you’re measuring. There are two different scales that result in European readings being several points higher (eg US 93 is ~ Euro 98)




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