# Stupid question on gas prices **URL:** \ **Category:** PittSpeed Off Topic\ **Created:** [May 14, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/stupid-question-on-gas-prices/197454 "2008-05-14T21:20:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 36
**Author:** ![04Mustang232](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/0/df788c/32.png) [@04Mustang232](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/04Mustang232)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/stupid-question-on-gas-prices/197454/36 "2008-05-18T18:26:33Z")
> [@17 across: An insulting way to label a black person.](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/17-across-an-insulting-way-to-label-a-black-person/36376/5): > > let me preface this: > this is only my understanding of oil and refining oil… i’m a computer guy and have no idea really… i just like to know whats up 🙂 > > crude oil is crude oil… oil contains hydrocarbons… each different chain of hydrocarbon is a different ‘grade’ of oil… methane, ethane and the like… when they distill these oils they heat them up to the temperature range of the oil’s vapor limit and extract it… so crude is broken into different levels of ‘grades’ of oil… (i say grades because i don’t know the official connotation) … anyway, gasoline is a mixture of two of these specific chains of carbon found in oil. > > SO… motor oil is made for viscosity… to achieve the viscous levels needed in motor oil, you use parts of crude that do not vaporize… gasoline vaporizes before water boils… so low temps… whereas motor oil never vaporizes… (or shouldn’t). > > so yeah… two different levels of oil… crude’s price in general hasn’t been the issue but rather the refinement and costs associated to create the correct string of carbon’d oil to make gas. > > hows that sound? that was pretty damn close. they extract the gas using thermal cracking i bleive. This is where those huge 125 billion dollar oil refineries come into play. They put that shit in a tank, heat it up, and everything separates out. Oil on the bottom. Then kerosene, gasoline, other junk. and the gasses like methane are on the top. then they just separate it out. physics ftw. --- _[View the full topic](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/stupid-question-on-gas-prices/197454)._